I..,.    ,    ■• 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


Reprint  of  a  Monograph 

prepared  for  the 

Educational  Exhibit 

of  the 

United  States  Government 

at  the 

Paris  Exposition  of  1900 


V^^IX    By  ANDREW  F.  WEST 

Professor  in  Princeton  University 


■.f. 


WAV  1  b  192b 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


Reprint  of  a  Monograph 

prepared  for  the 

Educational  Exhibit 

of  the 

United  States  Government 

at  the 

Paris  Exposition  of  1900 


By  ANDREW  F.  WEST 
Professor  in  Princeton  University 


Copyright  by 

J.  B.  LYON  COMPANY 

1899 


THE  AMERICAN   COLLEGE 


I    ITS    PLACE    AND    IMPORTANCE 

The  American  college  has  no  exact  counterpart  in  the 
educational  system  of  any  other  country.  The  elements 
which  compose  it  are  derived,  it  is  true,  from  European  sys- 
tems, and  in  particular  from  Great  Britain.  But  the  form 
under  which  these  elements  have  been  finally  compounded  is 
a  form  suggested  and  almost  compelled  by  the  needs  of  our 
national  life.  Of  course  it  is  far  from  true  to  say  that  Ameri-- 
can  colleges  have  been  uninfluenced  in  their  organization 
by  European  tradition.  On  the  contrary,  the  primary  form 
of  organization  found  in  our  earliest  colleges,  such  as  Har- 
vard, Yale  and  Princeton,  is  inherited  from  the  collegiate  life 
of  the  University  of  Cambridge.  But  it  was  subjected  to 
modification  at  the  very  beginning,  in  order  to  adapt  the 
infant  college  to  its  community,  and  progressively  modified 
from  time  to  time  in  order  to  keep  in  close  sympathy  with 
the  civil,  ecclesiastical  and  social  character  of  the  growing 
American  nation.  The  outcome  of  all  this  has  been  an 
institution  which,  while  deriving  by  inheritance  the  elements 
of  its  composition,  and  in  some  sense  its  form,  has  managed 
to  develop  for  itself  a  form  of  organization  which  notably 
differs  from  the  old-world  schools. 

Moreover  the  college,  as  might  be  expected  from  the  fore- 
going considerations,  occupies  the  place  of  central  importance 
in  the  historic  outworking  of  American  higher  education, 
and  remains  to-day  the  one  repository  and  shelter  of  liberal 
education  as  distinguished  from  technical  or  commercial 
training,  the  only  available  foundation  for  the  erection  of 
universities  containing  faculties  devoted  to  the  maintenance 
of  pure  learning,  and  the  only  institution  which  can  furnish 
the  preparation  which  is  always  desired,  even  though  it  is  not 


4  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [2IO 

yet  generally  exacted,  by  the  better  professional  schools. 
Singularly  enough,  but  not  unnaturally,  the  relation  of  direc- 
tive influence  sustained  to-day  by  our  colleges  to  the  univer- 
sity problem  is  not  unlike  the  relation  held  in  the  middle 
ages  by  the  inferior  faculty  of  arts  at  the  University  of  Paris 
to  the  affairs  of  the  university  as  a  whole.'  The  points  of 
resemblance  are  marked  and  are  of  a  generic  character.  In 
both  cases  the  college,  or  faculty  of  arts,  appears  as  the 
preliminary  instructor  in  the  essentials  of  liberal  education. 
In  both  cases  this  earlier  education  is  recognized  as  the 
proper  prerequisite  for  later  study  in  the  professional  facul- 
ties. In  both  cases  the  inferior  faculty,  even  if  still  undevel- 
oped or  but  partially  developed,  contains  the  germ  of  the 
higher  university  faculty  of  pure  learning,  the  faculty  of 
arts,  sciences  and  philosophy.  In  this  there  is  much  that  is 
remarkable,  but  nothing  novel.  For  the  American  college 
in  this  respect  merely  perpetuates  and  develops  a  funda- 
mental tradition  of  liberal  learning,  which  found  its  way 
from  Paris  through  Oxford  to  Cambridge,  and  then  from 
Cambridge  to  our  shores.  The  parallel  of  our  college  his- 
tory with  the  old-world  history  holds  good  in  other  impor- 
tant respects,  and  would  be  most  interesting  to  trace.  Still, 
in  order  to  understand  the  precise  nature  and  unique  influ- 
ence of  the  college  in  American  education,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary here  to  trace  step  by  step  the  story  of  its  development, 
for  in  its  various  forms  of  present  organization  it  reveals  not 
only  the  normal  type  which  has  been  evolved,  but  also  sur- 
vivals of  past  stages  of  development,  instances  of  variation 
and  even  of  degeneration  from  the  type,  and  interesting 
present  experiments  which  may  to  some  extent  foreshadow 
the  future. 

11  THE  OLD  FASHIONED  COLLEGE 

The  three  commonly  accepted  divisions  of  education  into 
the  primary,  secondary  and  higher  stages,  while  fully  recog- 
nized in  America,  are  not  followed  rigorously  in  our  organi- 


'  Rashdall  :  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages.     Chap.  I,  p.  318. 


2ll]  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  5 

zation.  The  primary  education  is  more  clearly  separable 
from  the  secondary  than  is  the  secondary  from  the  higher 
or  university  stage.  The  chief  cause  for  this  partial  blend- 
ing, or  perhaps  confusion,  of  the  secondary  and  higher 
stages  is  the  college.  However  illogical  and  even  practi- 
cally indefensible  such  a  mixture  may  appear  in  the  eyes  of 
some  very  able  critics,  it  is  still  true  that  the  historical  out- 
working of  this  partial  blending  of  two  different  things, 
commonly  and  wisely  separated  in  other  systems,  has  been 
compelled  by  the  exigencies  of  our  history  and  has  at  the 
same  time  been  fruitful  in  good  results. 

Let  us  then  take  as  the  starting  point  of  our  inquiry  the 
fact  that  the  American  college,  as  contrasted  with  European 
schools,  is  a  composite  thing  —  partly  secondary  and  partly 
higher  in  its  organization.  It  consists  regularly  of  a  four- 
year  course  of  study  leading  to  the  bachelor's  degree.  Up 
to  the  close  of  the  civil  war  (1861-1865)  it  was  mainly  an 
institution  of  secondary  education,  with  some  anticipations 
of  university  studies  toward  the  end  of  the  course.  But 
even  these  embryonic  university  studies  were  usually  taught 
as  rounding  out  the  course  of  disciplinary  education,  rather 
than  as  subjects  of  free  investigation.  Boys  entered  college 
when  they  were  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age.  The  average 
age  of  graduation  did  not  exceed  twenty  years.  The  usual 
course  of  preparation  in  the  best  secondary  schools  occupied 
four  years,  but  many  students  took  only  three  or  even  two 
years.  In  the  better  schools  they  studied  Latin  and  Greek 
grammar,  four  books  of  Caesar,  six  books  of  Virgil's  i^neid, 
six  orations  of  Cicero,  three  books  of  Xenophon's  Anabasis 
and  two  of  Homer's  Iliad,  together  with  arithmetic,  plane 
geometry  (not  always  complete)  and  algebra  to,  or  at  most 
through,  quadratic  equations.  There  were  variations  from 
this  standard,  but  in  general  it  may  be  safely  asserted  that 
the  Latin,  Greek  and  mathematics  specified  above  consti- 
tuted as  much  as  the  stronger  colleges  required  for  entrance  ; 
while  many  weaker  ones  with  younger  students  and  lower 
standards  were  compelled  to   teach  some  of  these  prepara- 


6  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [2  12 

tory  studies  in  the  first  year  or  the  first  two  years  of  the 
college  course.  With  but  few  and  unimportant  exceptions 
the  four-year  course  consisted  of  prescribed  studies.  They 
were  English  literature  and  rhetoric,  Latin,  Greek,  mathe- 
matics, natural  philosophy,  chemistry,  the  elements  of  deduc- 
tive logic,  moral  philosopy,  and  political  economy,  and  often 
a  little  psychology  and  metaphysics.  Perhaps  some  ancient 
or  general  history  was  added.  French  and  German  were 
sometimes  taught,  but  not  to  an  important  degree.  At  grad- 
uation the  student  received  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts, 
and  then  entered  on  the  study  of  law,  medicine  or  theology  at 
some  professional  school,  or  went  into  business  or  into  teach- 
ing in  the  primary  or  secondary  schools.  Such  was,  in  barest 
outline,  the  scheme  of  college  education  a  generation  ago. 

Ill     THE     COLLEGE     OF     TO-DAY  ;     PROPOSALS     TO    SHORTEN    THE 

COURSE 

At  the  present  time  things  are  very  different.  With  the 
vast  growth  of  the  country  in  wealth  and  population  since 
the  civil  war  there  has  come  a  manifold  development.  The 
old  four-year  course,  consisting  entirely  of  a  single  set  of 
prescribed  studies  leading  to  the  one  degree  of  bachelor 
of  arts,  has  grown  and  branched  in  many  ways.  It  has 
been  modified  from  below,  from  above  and  from  within. 
The  better  preparation  now  given  in  thousands  of  schools 
has  enabled  colleges  to  ask  for  somewhat  higher  entrance 
requirements  and,  what  is  more  important,  to  exact  them  with 
greater  firmness.  The  age  of  entrance  has  increased,  until 
at  the  older  and  stronger  colleges  the  average  is  now  about 
eighteen  and  a  half  years.  A  four-year  course  leading  to  a 
bachelor's  degree  remains,  although  in  some  quarters  the 
increasing  age  of  the  students  is  creating  a  tendency  to 
shorten  the  course  to  three  years,  in  order  that  young  men 
may  not  be  kept  back  too  long  from  entering  upon  their 
professional  studies.  It  was  an  easy  thing  a  generation 
ago  for  young  men  to  graduate  at  twenty,  and  a  bright 
man  could  do  it  earlier  without  difficulty.     After  two    or 


213]  THE    AMERICAN    COLLEGE  7 

three  years  spent  in  studying  law  or  medicine  he  was  ready 
to  practice  his  profession,  and  then  began  to  earn  his  living 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two  or  twenty-three.     This  was  within 
his    reach.     But    to-day    a   college    student    is    twenty-two 
years   old   at  graduation  —  as  old   as  his  father  or  grand- 
father were  when  they  had  finished  their  professional  studies. 
If  he  follows  in  their  steps,  he  must  wait  until  he  is  twenty- 
five  to  begin  earning  his  living.     Accordingly  boys  are  now 
passing    in   considerable  numbers  directly   from  secondary 
schools,  which  do  not  really  complete  their  secondary  educa- 
tion, to  the  professional  schools,  thus  omitting  college  alto- 
gether.    If  this  continues  the  effect  both  on  colleges  and  pro- 
fessional schools  will  be  discouraging.    The  problem  is  an  eco- 
nomic one,  and  it  is  affecting  college  courses  of  study.     One 
solution,  as  suggested  above,  is  to  shorten  the  course  to  three 
years.     This  has  been  advocated  by  President  Eliot  of  Har- 
vard.    Three  years  is  the  length  of  the  course  in  the  under- 
graduate college  established  in  connection  with  the  Johns 
Hopkins  university.     Another  proposal  is  to  keep  the  four- 
year  course  and  allow  professional  in  place  of  liberal  studies 
in  the  last  year,  thus  enabling  the  student  to  save  one  year 
in  the  professional  school.     This  experiment  is  being  tried 
at  Columbia.     A  third  proposal  is  to  keep  the  college  course 
absolutely  free  from  professional  studies,  but  to  give  abun- 
dant opportunities  in  the  last  year  or  even  the  last  two  years 
to  pursue  the  liberal   courses  which   most   clearly   underlie 
professional   training,    thus  saving  a   year   of    professional 
study.     That  is,   teach  jurisprudence  and  history,   but   not 
technical  law,  or  teach  chemistry  and  biology,  but  not  techni- 
cal medicine,  or  teach  Greek,  oriental  languages,  history  and 
philosophy,  but  not  technical   theology.     This  seems  to  be 
the   trend   of   recent   experiments   in   Yale    and    Princeton. 
The  one  common  consideration   in  favor  of  all  these  pro- 
posals is  that  a  year  is  saved.     Against  the  three-year  course, 
however,  it  is  argued  that  there  is  no  need  to  abolish  the 
four-year   course    in    order    to    save    a    yean     Against    the 
admission  of  professional  studies  it  is  argued  that  work  done 


8  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [2  1 4 

in  a  professional  school  ought  not  to  count  at  the  same  time 
toward  two  degrees  representing  two  radically  different 
things.  Against  the  proposal  to  allow  the  liberal  studies 
which  most  closely  underlie  the  professions,  it  is  argued  that 
this  is  a  half-way  measure,  after  all.  Nevertheless  for  the 
present,  and  probably  for  a  long  time  in  most  colleges,  the 
four-year  course  is  assured. 

IV     ALTERATIONS  IN  THE  CONTENT  OF  THE  COURSE  AND  IN  THE 
MEANING  OF  THE  BACHELOr's  DEGREE 

The  four-year  course,  however,  no  longer  leads  solely  to 
the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts,  nor  has  this  old  degree  itself 
remained  unmodified.  With  the  founding  of  schools  of 
science,  aiming  to  give  a  modern  form  of  liberal  education 
based  mainly  on  the  physical  and  natural  sciences,  and  yet 
only  too  often  giving  under  this  name  a  technological  course, 
or  a  somewhat  incongruous  mixture  of  technical  and  liberal 
studies,  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  science  came  into  use  as  a 
college  degree.  Then  intermediate  courses  were  consti- 
tuted, resting  on  Latin,  the  modern  languages,  history, 
philosophy,  mathematics  and  science,  and  thus  the  degree  of 
bachelor  of  letters  or  bacheJor  of  philosophy  came  into  use. 
Sometimes  the  various  courses  in  civil,  mechanical,  mining 
or  electrical  engineering  were  made  four-year  undergradu- 
ate courses  with  their  corresponding  engineering  degrees 
virtually  rated  as  bachelor's  degrees.  Still  other  degrees 
of  lesser  importance  came  into  vogue  and  obtained  a  foot- 
ing here  and  there  a.:  proper  degrees  to  mark  the  comple- 
tion of  a  four-year  college  course.  The  dispersing  pressure 
of  the  newer  studies  and  the  imperious  practical  demands 
of  American  life  proved  too  strong  either  to  be  held  in  form 
or  to  be  kept  out  by  the  barriers  of  the  old  course  of  purely 
liberal  studies  with  its  single  and  definite  bachelor  of  arts 
degree.  New  degrees  were  accordingly  added  to  represent 
the  attempted  organization  of  the  newer  tendencies  in  courses 
of  study  accordinj;^  to  their  various  types.  The  organiza- 
tion  of   such   courses  was  naturally  embarrassed  by  grave 


21 


5]  THE  AMERICAN"  COLLEGE 


difficulties  which  are  as  yet  only  partially  overcome.  Com- 
pared with  the  old  course  they  lacked  and  still  lack  defi- 
niteness  of  structure.  They  aimed  to  realize  new  and 
imperfectly  understood  conceptions  of  education,  and  were 
composed  of  studies  whose  inner  content  was  changing  rap- 
idly, as  in  the  case  of  the  sciences,  or  else  were  "half-and- 
half  "  forms  of  education,  difficult  to  arrange  in  a  system 
that  promised  stability,  as  in  the  case  of  studies  leading  to 
the  bachelor  of  letters  or  bachelor  of  philosophy.  A  graver 
source  of  trouble,  in  view  of  the  too  fierce  practicality  of 
American  life,  was  the  admission  of  various  engineering  and 
other  technical  studies  as  parallel  undergraduate  courses, 
thus  tending  to  confuse  in  the  minds  of  young  students  the 
radical  distinction  between  liberal  and  utilitarian  ideals  in 
education,  and  tending  furthermore,  by  reason  of  the  attrac- 
tiveness of  the  "bread-and-butter"  courses,  to  diminish  the 
strength  of  the  liberal  studies.  When  in  addition  it  is 
remembered  that  the  newer  courses,  whether  liberal,  semi- 
liberal  or  technical,  which  found  a  footing  of  presumed 
equality  alongside  of  the  old  bachelor  of  arts  course,  exacted 
less  from  preparatory  schools  in  actual  quantity  of  school 
work  necessary  for  entrance  into  college,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  level  of  preparation  for  college  was  really  lowered. 

The  present  drift  of  opinion  and  action  in  colleges  which 
offer  more  than  one  bachelor's  degree  is  more  reassuring 
than  it  was  some  twenty  years  ago.  There  is  a  noticeable 
tendency,  growing  stronger  each  year,  to  draw  a  sharp  line 
between  liberal  and  technical  education  and  to  retain  under- 
graduate college  education  in  liberal  studies  as  the  best 
foundation  for  technical  studies,  thus  elevating  the  latter  to 
a  professsional  dignity  comparable  with  law.  medicine  and 
divinity.  The  more  this  conception  prevails,  the  more  will 
college  courses  in  engineering  be  converted  into  graduate, 
or  at  least  partially  graduate  courses.  No  doubt  most  inde- 
pendent schools  will  continue  to  offer  their  courses  to  young 
students  of  college  age,  but  where  such  schools  have  been 
associated  as  parts  of  colleges  or  universities  the  tendency 


lO  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [2  I  6 

to  a  clearer  separation  of  technical  from  liberal  studies  in 
the  manner  indicated  above  seems  likely  to  prevail.  If  this 
happy  result  can  be  considered  assured,  then  the  under- 
graduate college  course,  the  sole  guarantee  of  American 
liberal  culture,  will  have  a  good  chance  to  organize  itself  in 
accordance  with  its  own  high  ideals,  however  imperfectly  it 
may  have  realized  these  ideals  in  the  past. 

Another  hopeful  tendency  which  is  gradually  gathering 
strength  is  to  give  the  various  bachelor's  degrees  more  defi- 
nite significance  by  making  them  stand  for  distinct  types  of 
liberal  or  semi-liberal  education.  Three  such  types  or  forms 
are  now  slowly  evolving  out  of  the  mass  of  studies  with 
increasing  logical  consistency.  First  comes  the  historical 
academic  course,  attempting  to  realize  the  idea  of  a  general 
liberal  education,  and  consisting  of  the  classical  and  modern 
literatures,  mathematics  and  science,  with  historical,  polit- 
ical and  philosophical  studies  added,  and  leading  to  the 
bachelor  of  arts  degree.  The  second  is  the  course  which 
aims  to  represent  a  strictly  modern  culture  predominantly 
scientific  in  character,  and  culminating  in  the  degree  of 
bachelor  of  science.  As  this  course  originated  in  the 
demand  for  knowledge  of  the  applied  sciences  in  the  arts  and 
industries  of  modern  life,  the  ideal  of  a  purely  modern  lib- 
eral culture,  predominantly  scientific  in  spirit,  was  not  easy 
to  maintain.  On  the  contrary,  the  technical  aspects  of  the 
sciences  taught  tended  more  and  more  to  create  a  demand 
for  strictly  technological  instruction  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
theoretical  and  non-technical  aspects.  It  is  this  cause  more 
than  any  other  which  has  tended  to  restrict  the  energies  of 
schools  of  science  to  the  production  of  experts  in  the  various 
mechanical  and  chemical  arts  and  industries  and  has  caused 
them  to  do  so  little  for  the  advancement  of  pure  science. 
Conscious  of  this  difficulty,  many  schools  of  science  have 
been  giving  larger  place  in  the  curriculum  to  some  of  the 
more  available  humanistic  studies.  Fuller  courses  in  French 
and  German  have  been  provided  for  and  the  study  of  Eng- 
lish has  been  insisted  upon  with  sharper  emphasis.     Eco- 


2  17]  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  II 

nomics,  modern  history  and  even  the  elements  of  philosophy 
have  found  place.     Some  improvement  has  also  been  effected 
by  increasing  the  entrance  requirements  in  quantity  of  school 
work.      But  in  spite  of  all  these  efforts  the  course  still  suffers 
from  an  inner    antagonism  between  technical    and    liberal 
impulses,  and  until  the  bachelor  of  science  course  finally  set- 
tles into  a  strictly  technical  form,  or  else  comes  to  represent 
a  strictly    modern   liberal    culture,   its    stability    cannot    be 
regarded  as  assured.     In  the  independent  scientific  schools, 
unassociated  with  colleges,  it  seems  probable  the  course  will 
keep  or  assume  a  highly  technical  form,  but  Avherever  it  exists 
side  by  side  with  other  bachelor's  courses  as  a  proposed  rep- 
resentative of  some  form  of  liberal  education,  it  does  seem 
inevitable  that  the  bachelor  of  science  course  will  tend  to 
conform  to  the  ideal  of  a  modern  culture  mainly  scientific 
In  character.      But  even  if  this  result  be  achieved,  the  pro- 
cess of  achievement  promises  to  be  slow  and  difficult.      Few 
American  colleges  are  strong  enough  financially  to  make  the 
experiment,  which  it  must  be  admitted  involves  considerable 
financial  risk,  and  even  where  the  risk  may  be  safely  assumed 
there  still  remains  a  serious  theoretical  difficulty  in  realizing 
this  form  of  liberal  education.     The  antagonism  between 
the  technical  and  liberal  impulses  in  the  course  seems  very 
difficult  to  eliminate  completely.      ¥or  if   the  question  be 
asked,  Why  should  an  American  college  student  seek  as  his 
liberal  education  the  studies  which  represent  a  purely  mod- 
ern culture  rather  than  pursue  the  bachelor  of  arts  course, 
which  professes  to  stand  for  a  more  general  culture?  the 
preference  of  most  students  will  be  found  to  rest  upon  their 
instinct   for   something    useful    and    immediately   available, 
rather  than  on   a  desire  for  things   intellectual.      This  con- 
stantly militates  against  devotion  to  the  intellectual  value 
of  their  modern  studies  and  tends  more  and  more  to  drag 
them  toward  technical  standards. 

The  third  aspirant  to  be  considered  a  type  of  liberal  col- 
lege education  is  the  course  intermediate  in  character 
between  the  two  already  discussed.     It  is  labeled  with  the 


12  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [2  I  8 

degree  of  bachelor  of  letters  or  bachelor  of  philosophy.  It 
differs  from  the  other  two  courses  mainly  in  its  treatment  of 
the  classical  languages.  In  its  desire  to  placate  the  practical 
spirit  it  drops  Greek,  but  retains  Latin  both  as  an  aid  to 
general  culture  and  as  a  strong  practical  help  in  learning  the 
modern  languages.  Notwithstanding  its  indeterminate  and 
intermediate  character,  it  is  serving  a  valuable  end  by  pro- 
viding thousands  of  students,  who  do  not  care  for  the  clas- 
sical languages  in  their  entirety,  with  a  sufficiently  liberal 
form  of  education  to  be  of  great  service  to  them.  It  is  by 
no  means  technical  in  spirit.  Judged  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  historical  bachelor  of  arts  course,  it  is  a  less  gen- 
eral but  still  valuable  culture.  Judged  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  bachelor  of  science  course,  it  appears  to  escape  the 
unhappy  conflict  between  the  technical  and  liberal  impulses 
and  anchors  the  student  somewhat  more  firmly  to  funda- 
mental conceptions  of  general  culture. 

These  three  are  the  principal  forms  of  undergraduate  col- 
lege education  which  in  any  degree  profess  to  stand  as  types 
of  liberal  culture  in  this  country  at  the  present  time,  and 
they  are  usually  labeled  with  three  different  degrees,  as 
already  indicated. 

But  some  colleges,  following  the  example  of  Harvard, 
have  dealt  with  the  bachelor's  degree  very  differently.  The 
degree  has  been  retained  as  the  sole  symbol  of  liberal  col- 
lege education,  but  the  meaning  of  the  degree  has  been 
radically  altered  in  order  to  make  it  sufficiently  elastic  to 
represent  the  free  selections  and  combinations  made  by 
the  students  themselves  out  of  the  whole  range  of  liberal 
studies.  In  these  colleges  it  therefore  no  longer  stands 
for  the  completion  of  a  definite  curriculum  composed  of  a 
few  clearly-related  central  studies  constituting  a  positive 
type.  What  it  does  stand  for  is  not  quite  so  easy  to 
define,  because  of  the  variation  of  practice  in  different  col- 
leges and  the  wide  diversity  in  the  choice  of  studies  exer- 
cised by  individual  students  in  any  one  college.  But,  gen- 
erally speaking,  it  means  that  the  student  is  free  to  choose 


219]  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  1 3 

his  own  studies.  In  the  undergraduate  college  connected 
with  the  Johns  Hopkins  university  at  Baltimore  choice  is 
regulated  by  prescribing  moderately  elastic  groups  of  cog- 
nate studies,  the  student  being  required  to  say  which  group 
he  will  choose.  In  Harvard  college  the  range  of  choice  is 
restricted  in  no  such  way.  The  student  is  allowed  to  choose 
what  he  prefers,  subject  to  such  limitations  as  the  priority 
of  elementary  to  advanced  courses  in  any  subject,  and  the 
necessary  exclusions  compelled  by  the  physical  necessity  of 
placing  many  exercises  at  the  same  time,  in  order  to  accom- 
modate the  hundreds  of  courses  offered  within  the  limits  of 
the  weekly  schedule.  In  Columbia  college  the  degree  is 
still  different  in  respect  to  the  mode  of  the  student's  freedom 
of  choice,  and  especially  in  the  admission  of  professional 
studies  in  the  last  year  of  the  course.  A  Columbia  student 
in  his  senior  year  may  be  pursuing  his  first  year's  course  in 
law  or  medicine,  and  at  the  same  time  receiving  double 
credit  for  this  work,  both  toward  the  degree  of  bachelor  of 
arts  and  toward  the  professional  degree  of  doctor  of  medi- 
cine or  bachelor  of  laws.  These  examples  are  sufficient  to 
indicate  the  variety  of  meaning  found  in  colleges  which 
have  changed  the  historical  significance  of  the  bachelor  of 
arts  degree. 

V  OTHER  PHASES  OF  CHANGE 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  looked  at  the  American  college 
mainly  from  the  outside.  We  observed  in  the  college  of  a 
generation  ago  an  institution  of  liberal  education  providing 
a  single  four-year  course,  consisting  entirely  of  prescribed 
studies  for  young  men  from  sixteen  to  twenty  years  of  age, 
and  culminating  in  one  bachelor's  degree  of  fairly  uniform 
intentional  meaning.  We  observe  in  the  college  of  to-day 
the  developed  successor  of  the  earlier  college,  providing  a 
four-year  course  consisting  generally  of  a  mixture  of  pre- 
scribed and  elective  studies  in  widely  varying  proportions. 
The  average  age  of  the  students  has  increased  at  least  two 
years,  and  at  the  end  of  the  course  there  is  a  multiform 
instead  of  a  uniform  bachelor's  degree,  or  in  some  instances 


14  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [220 

a  single  bachelor's  degree  of  multiform  meaning.  To  some 
extent  the  undergraduate  collegian  has  become  a  university 
student.  To  what  extent  ?  is  the  real  question  around  which 
a  controversy  of  vital  importance  is  raging. 

The  profound  change  indicated  by  these  external  symp- 
toms, a  change  so  full  of  peril  in  the  directions  of  disintegra- 
tion and  confusion,  and  yet  so  full  of  promise  if  rationally 
organized,  has  been  in  progress  since  the  civil  war,  and  is 
still  steadily  and  somewhat  blindly  working  along  towards 
its  consummation.  An  exact  estimate  of  such  a  state  of 
affairs,  a  diagnosis  which  shall  at  the  same  time  have  the 
value  of  a  prognosis  for  all  colleges,  is  manifestly  impossible 
at  the  present  time.  The  difficult  thing  in  any  such  attempt 
is  not  merely  to  understand  the  change  from  a  uniform  to  a 
multiform  mode  of  life  and  organization,  but  to  understand 
what  it  really  is  that  is  changing.  This  something  that  is 
changing  is  the  old-fashioned  American  college.  It  seems 
simple  enough  to  understand  what  this  was,  but  at  the  same 
time  it  needs  to  be  remembered  that  the  old-fashioned  col- 
leges, while  aiming  to  follow  out  a  single  course  of  study 
ending  in  a  single  degree  of  single  meaning,  nevertheless 
did  not  succeed  in  exhibiting-  such  close  individual  resem- 
blance  to  each  other  as  is  to  be  found,  let  us  say,  among  the 
lycees  of  France,  the  public  schools  of  England  or  the  gym- 
nasia of  Germany.  Many  so-called  colleges  really  served  as 
preparatory  schools  for  larger  and  stronger  colleges,  and 
many  so-called  universities  did  not  attain  and  in  fact  do  not 
yet  attain  to  the  real,  though  less  pretentious  dignity  of  the 
better  colleges.  In  fact  "university,"  as  President  Oilman 
observes,  is  only  too  often  a  "  majestic  synonym  "  for  "  col- 
lege." To  aid  in  giving  as  much  simplicity  and  consequent 
clearness  to  our  view  as  is  necessary  to  disclose  the  leading 
features  of  the  situation,  neglecting  all  the  others,  we  may 
therefore  at  once  discard  from  our  consideration  all  except 
the  better  colleges  which,  when  taken  together,  exhibit  the 
dominant  tendency. 

How,  then,  have  these  better  colleges  changed?     Speak- 


22 1]  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  15 

ing  generally,  they  have  changed  in  a  way  which  reflects  the 
diversified  progress  of  the  country,  and  yet   in  some  sense 
they  have  had  an  important  influence  in  leading  and  organ- 
izing the  national  progress  itself.     Then,  too,  the  change  is 
not  merely  a  change  of  form,  but  of  spirit.      In   the  older 
days  scarcely  any  college  had  as  many  as  four  or  five  hundred 
students,   and  the  range  of  studies,  even  if  important,  was 
limited.     The   faculty    of    the    college    exercised    a   strong 
paternal  anxiety  and  oversight  on  behalf  of  the  morals  and 
religion,  as  well  as  over  the  studies  of  the  students.     The 
authority  of  the  president  was  almost  patriarchal   in  charac- 
ter.     Not  highly  developed  insight  into  the  problems  of  edu- 
cation, but  plain  common  sense  in  governing  students  was 
the  condition  of  a  successful   presidency.     The  life  of  the 
students  was  mildly  democratic,  being  tempered  by  the  gen- 
erally beneficent  absolutism  of  the  president  and  the  faculty, 
which   in   turn  was  itself  tempered  by   occasional   student 
outbreaks.      According  to   the   last    report  of   the    United 
States  commissioner  of  education  (1896-97)  there  are  now 
472  colleges,'  excluding  those  for  women  only.     Seventy- 
seven   of   these   enroll   more   than    200  undergraduate  stu- 
dents,   and    of    these    seventy-seven    colleges    twenty-four 
enroll    over    500,    and    eight   over    1,000.       The    range    of 
studies,   as  already   mentioned,   has   increased.      With   the 
strengthening  of  preparatory  courses,  the  school  preparation 
of  students  has  improved,  and  at  the  same  time  their  average 
age  at  entrance  has  risen.     The  number  of  professors  has 
niultiplied.     The  old-fashioned  college  professor,  the  man  of 
moderate    general    scholarship    and   of   austere    yet   kindly 
interest   in  the  personal   welfare   of   those   he   taught,   still 
remains ;  but  at  his  side  has  appeared  more  and  more  fre- 
quently the  newer  type  of  American  college  professor,  the 
man  of  high  special  learning  in  some  one  subject  or  branch 
of  that  subject,  who  considers  it  his  primary  duty  to  investi- 
gate, his  next  duty  to  teach,  and  his  least  duty  to  exercise  a 

'That  is.  472  "  colleges  and  universities."     As  almost  every  university,  real  or 
nominal,  contains  a  college,  the  total  of  472  colleges  is  approximately  correct. 


l6  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [222 

personal  care  for  the  individual  students.  Perhaps  the  old 
type  will  be  replaced  by  the  new.  Such  a  result,  however, 
would  not  be  an  unmixed  gain,  and  it  is  indeed  fortunate  that 
our  finest  college  professors  to-day  endeavor  to  combine 
high  special  attainments  as  scholars  with  deep  interest  in 
the  personal  well-being  of  their  students.  The  authority  of 
the  faculty  is  still  sufficient,  but  is  exercised  differently.  Stu- 
dent self-government  is  the  order  of  the  day,  and  the  more 
this  prevails  the  less  is  exercise  of  faculty  authority  found  to 
be  necessary.  With  student  self-government  there  has 
naturally  come  an  Increase  of  intensity  in  the  democratic 
character  of  student  life.  The  presidents  of  our  larger  col- 
leges, and  even  of  many  of  the  smaller,  are  becoming  more 
and  more  administrative  officers  and  less  and  less  teachers. 
It  is  no  doubt  something  of  a  loss  that  the  students  should 
not  have  the  intimate  personal  acquaintance  with  the  presi- 
dent enjoyed  by  students  a  generation  ago,  but  this  can- 
not be  avoided  in  places  where  a  thousand  undergradu-> 
ates  are  enrolled.  Out-door  sports  have  also  entered  to 
modify  and  improve  the  spirit  of  our  academic  life.  They 
have  developed  their  own  evils,  but  at  the  same  time  have 
done  wonders  for  the  physical  health  of  the  students,  the 
diminution  of  student  disorders  and  the  fostering  of  an 
intense  espi'it  de  coi'ps.  In  the  reaction  from  the  asceticism 
of  our  early  college  life  there  is  little  doubt  our  athletics 
have  gone  too  far ;  so  far  as  to  diveft  in  a  noticeable  degree 
the  student's  attention  from  his  studies.  But  it  is  gratifying 
to  notice  that  the  abuses  of  college  athletics  can  be  corrected, 
and  that  they  are  to  some  extent  self-correcting.  It  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  unlike  his  father  or  grandfather,  whose 
college  life  was  so  largely  spent  indoors,  the  American  stu- 
dent of  to-day  lives  outdoors  as  much  as  possible.  The 
moral  and  religious  spirit  of  the  college  of  to-day  is  inher- 
ited from  the  old  college. 

Nearly  all  our  colleges  are  avowedly  or  impliedly  Chris- 
tian. A  respectable  minority  of  them  are  Roman  Catholic. 
The  large  majority  are  under  Protestant  influences,  some- 


223J  I'HE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  1 7 

times  denominational,  but  generally  of  an  unsectarian  char- 
acter even  in  the  church  colleges.  In  most  of  them  the  stu- 
dent is  expected  to  attend  certain  religious  exercises,  such 
as  morning  prayers  ;  in  many,  however,  all  such  attendance 
is  voluntary.  The  voluntary  religious  life  of  the  under- 
graduates finds  its  expression  in  various  societies,  which 
endeavor  to  promote  the  Christian  fellowship  and  life  of 
their  members.  While  moral  and  religious  convictions  are 
freer  and  sometimes  laxer  than  of  old  the  Christian  life  in 
our  colleges  is  real  and  pervasive. 

As  a  rule  the  student  is  so  absorbed  by  the  scholastic, 
athletic  and  miscellaneous  activities  of  his  college  that  he 
sees  little  outside  social  life.  This  is  particularly  true  in 
colleges  which  enjoy  truly  academic  seclusion  amid  rural' 
surroundings,  for  here  more  than  anywhere  else  is  to  be  seen 
the  natural  unperturbed  outworking  of  the  undergraduate 
spirit.  It  is  the  old  spirit  enlarged  and  liberalized,  —  the 
spirit  which  finds  its  delight  in  a  free,  democratic,  self-respect- 
ino-  enjoyment  of  the  four  years  which  are  so  often  looked 
back  upon  as  the  happiest  four  years  of  life. 

VI    INCREASED    FREEDOM    IN    STUDIES.       DEVELOPMENT    OF 

ELECTIVE    COURSES 

Such  are  some  of  the  non-scholastic  aspects  of  our  present 
college  life.  They  are  important  in  that  they  give  tone  to  the 
whole  picture,  but  they  do  not  account  for  what,  after  all,  is 
the  great  transformation  which  has  been  wrought,  for  that 
transformation  is  distinctly  scholastic.  It  is  caused  by  the 
increase  of  students,  their  better  preparation  and  their 
greater  age.  The  studies  which  by  common  consent  made 
up  the  curriculum  leading  to  the  old  bachelor  of  arts  degree 
are  now  being  completed  before  the  end,  sometimes  by  the 
middle  of  the  college  course.  There  is  to-day  no  reason  why 
a  young  man  of  twenty  should  not  know  as  much  as  his 
father  knew  at  twenty.  But  at  twenty  his  father  had  gradu- 
ated with  the  bachelor  of  arts  degree,  whereas  at  twenty  the 
son  is  only  half  way  through  his   college  course.      In  other 


1 8  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [224 

words,  he  has  passed  the  time  of  prescription  and  entered 
upon  the  time  of  his  freedom.  As  this  fact  forced  itself 
more  and  more  upon  the  older  and  stronger  colleges,  experi- 
ments wfere  made  in  granting  a  limited  amount  of  elective 
freedom  to  students  in  the  latter  part  of  their  course  ;  first 
in  the  senior  year  and  then  in  the  junior  year,  until  in  some 
instances  the  whole  four-year  course  is  now  elective.  The 
solid  block  of  four  years'  prescribed  study  has  been  cleft 
downward,  part  of  the  way  at  least,  by  the  "  elective " 
wedge,  thin  at  its  entering  edge,  but  widening  above  the 
more  it  enters  and  descends.  To-day  the  problem  of  the 
relation  of  prescribed  to  elective  studies  is  a  question  of  con- 
stant interest  and  perpetual  readjustment.  On  the  whole, 
the  area  of  elective  opportunity  is  extending  downward,  but 
whether  this  downward  extension  is  being  accomplished  by 
injuring  the  foundations  of  liberal  education,  is  to-day  as 
grave  a  question  as  any  we  have  to  meet.  In  some  colleges 
a  student  may  obtain  the  bachelor  of  arts  degree  without 
studying  any  science,  or  he  may  omit  his  classics,  or  he  may 
know  nothing  of  philosophy.  The  solutions  offered  for  this 
perplexing  problem  are  many. 

The  first  proposal,  which  has  now  scarcely  an  advocate, 
except  possibly  some  laudatores  tetnporis  acti,  is  plainly  an 
impossible  one.  It  is  to  insist  on  the  old-fashioned  f.our-year 
prescribed  course.  But  the  old-fashioned  course  is  gone. 
It  cannot  be  restored,  because  it  no  longer  suits  our  age. 
Young  men  will  not  go  to  college  and  remain  there  until  the 
age  of  twenty-two  years  without  some  opportunity  to  exercise 
freedom  of  choice  in  their  studies. 

The  second  proposal  is  to  constitute  the  undergraduate 
course  entirely,  or  almost  entirely,  of  elective  studies.  It 
is  argued  that  when  a  young  man  is  eighteen  or  nineteen 
years  of  age,  he  is  old  enough  to  choose  his  liberal  studies, 
and  that  his  own  choice  will  be  better  for  him  individually 
than  any  prescription  the  wisest  college  faculty  may  make. 
The  advocates  of  this  view  admit  its  dangers.  They  see 
the  perils  of  incoherency  and  discontinuity  in  the  choice  of 


225J  THE  ami: RICA. V  COLLEGE  Ig 

studies.  They  see  that  many  students  are  influenced,  not 
by  the  intrinsic  vahie  of  the  studies,  but  by  their  Hking  for 
this  or  that  instructor,  or  the  companionship  of  certain  stu- 
dents, or  for  the  easiness  of  those  crowded  courses  which  in 
college  slang  are  called  "  softs  "  or  "  snaps  "  or  "  cinches."  Yet 
they  argue  that  the  college  student  must  be  free  at  some  time, 
that  his  sense  of  responsibility  will  be  developed  the  sooner 
he  is  compelled  to  choose  for  himself,  and  that  he  will  have 
the  stimulating  and  sobering  consciousness  that  what  he  does 
is  his  own  act  and  not  the  prescription  of  others  for  him. 
Those  who  oppose  this  view  argue  that  the  academic  free- 
dom here  proposed  belongs  to  university  rather  than  to  col- 
lege students  ;  that  the  American  freshman  is  not  a  university 
student  in  the  sense  in  which  that  term  has  been  commonly 
understood  in  the  educated  world.  He  has  not  spent  eight, 
nine  or  ten  years  in  secondary'  studies,  as  is  the  case  in 
France,  England  or  Germany.  On  the  contrary,  he  has 
usually  spent  not  more  than  four  years  in  such  secondary 
studies  —  occasionally  a  year  or  so  more.  At  eighteen  or 
nineteen  years  of  age,  he,  therefore,  comes  to  college  with 
less  training  and  mental  maturity  than  the  French,  English 
or  German  youth  possesses  on  entering  his  university. 
If,  therefore,  he  is  to  be  as  well  educated  as  they  are, 
some  of  his  time  in  college,  the  first  two  years  at  least, 
should  be  spent  in  perfecting  his  properly  secondary  edu- 
cation before  entering  upon  that  elective  freedom  which,  as 
is  generally  conceded,  has  a  place  and  a  large  place  in  our 
present  undergraduate  courses.  The  arguing  on  this  ques- 
tion has  been  interminable,  and  almost  every  intellectual 
interest  of  our  colleges  is  bound  up  in  its  proper  solution. 

A  third  proposal  is  a  conservative  modification  of  the  one 
just  mentioned.  It  is  to  prescribe  groups  of  cognate  studies 
with  the  object  of  concentrating  attention  on  related  subjects 
in  that  field  which  the  student  may  prefer,  as,  for  example, 
physical  science  or  ancient  literature  or  philosoph)-.  Of 
course  the  advantage  claimed  for  this  mode  is  that  it  allows 
the  student  to  choose  the  field  of  study  he  likes,  and  then 


20  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [226 

safeguards  him  against  incoherency  by  requiring  him  to  pur- 
sue a  group  of  well-related  courses  in  that  field.  Or  he  may 
elect  the  "old-fashioned  college  course,"  if  he  likes.  The 
advocates  of  wider  freedom  object  to  this  as  fettering  spon- 
taneity of  choice,  as  not  recognizing  the  fact  that  there  are 
many  students  for  whom  it  is  advantageous  to  choose  a  study 
here  and  there  at  will,  as  a  piece  of  side  work  outside  the 
chosen  field  of  their  activity.  The  objectors  to  this  plan  of 
restricted  groups  and  also  to  the  plan  of  practically  unre- 
stricted freedom,  assert  that  the  fundamental  difficulty  in 
basing  any  college  course  on  a  single  group  of  cognate 
studies  within  some  one  field  is  that  it  offers  temptations  to 
premature  specialization  at  the  expense  of  liberal  education. 
Still  another  proposal  remains  to  be  considered.  It  is  the 
proposal  of  those  who  believe  that  the  best  type  of  liberal 
education  is  to  be  found  in  the  historic  bachelor  of  arts 
course,  which  has  been  the  center  and  strength  of  Ameri- 
can  college  life.  They  concede,  however,  that  the  other 
bachelor's  courses  which  have  been  established  will  pfive  a 
valuable  education  to  many,  provided  these  courses  are 
consistently  organized  according  to  their  own  ideals. 
They  hold  that  it  is  possible  to  ascertain  with  sufficient 
exactness  just  what  studies  ought  to  be  prescribed  as  integral 
parts  of  these  courses,  and  that  it  is  the  preliminary  training 
given  in  these  prescribed  studies  which  develops  maturity  in 
the  young  student  and  enables  him  to  choose  intelligently 
his  later  elective  studies.  At  the  present  time,  in  their  view, 
it  is  not  wise  to  introduce  elective  studies  until  about  the 
middle  of  the  college  course.  These  studies,  once  intro- 
duced, should  themselves  be  organized  and  related  in  a  sys- 
tem, and  connected  with  the  underlying  system  of  prescribed 
studies.  The  principle  of  freedom  should  be  introduced 
gradually,  not  suddenly.  A  form  of  this  view  which  finds  a 
good  deal  of  support  is  that  elective  studies  should  be 
introduced  first  of  all  in  the  form  of  extensions  of  subjects 
already  studied  by  the  student,  in  order  that  he  may  make 
his  first  experiment  of  choice  in  an  area  where  he  is  most 


2  2  7]  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  2  1 

familiar.  According  to  this  view  the  second  stage  of  elec- 
tive studies  should  be  the  introduction  of  large  general 
courses  in  leading  subjects,  accompanied  or  flanked  by  special 
courses  for  students  of  exceptional  ability  in  special  direc- 
tions, and  finally  leading  to  as  high  a  degree  of  specializa- 
tion as  the  resources  of  the  colleofe  will  allow. 

But  in  this  region  the  American  college  merges  itself  into 
the  university,  and  it  may  be  fairly  asserted  that  in  the  last 
year  and  in  some  colleges  in  the  last  two  years  the  student 
is  really  a  university  student.  In  these  various  ways  we  are 
to-day  experimenting  in  order  to  find  a  form  under  which  to 
organize  the  rapidly-increasing  mass  of  elective  studies. 

VII    MODES  OF  INSTRUCTION.       ACADEMIC  HONORS 

Instruction  is  still  mainly  conducted  by  recitation  and  lec- 
ture, the  recitation  finding  its  chief  place  in  the  earlier  and 
the  lecture  in  the  later  part  of  the  course.  For  purposes  of 
recitation  the  classes  are  divided  into  sections  of  twenty-five 
or  thirty  students,  and  the  exercise  is  usually  based  on  a 
definitely  allotted  portion  of  some  standard  text-book. 
Much  has  been  done  to  improve  the  character  of  this  exer- 
cise. The  attempt  is  made  to  make  it  something  more  vital 
than  the  mere  listening  to  students  as  they  recite  what  they 
have  learned.  The  correction  of  mistakes,  the  attempt  to 
lead  the  student  along  so  as  to  discover  for  himself  the 
cause  of  his  mistakes,  the  endeavor  to  teach  the  entire  class 
through  the  performance  of  each  individual,  to  carry  the 
whole  group  along  as  one  man  and  thus  conduct  them 
through  a  stimulating  and  pleasant  hour,  is  the  aim  of  the 
more  skilful  instructors.  Variety  and  consequent  freshen- 
ing of  attention  and  effort  are  added  by  setting  collateral 
topics  of  special  interest  to  this  or  that  student,  for  him  to 
look  up  somewhat  independently.  And  it  must  be  confessed 
that  the  professors  most  skilled  in  the  art  of  conducting 
recitations,  rather  than  those  who  depend  wholly  on  lectures, 
leave  the  most  abiding  impression.  The  old-fashioned  reci- 
tation too  often  put  the  student  into  a  laborious  treadmill. 


22  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [228 

and  monotony  was  the  result.  But  the  best  recitations  in 
our  colleges  to-day  are  fine  examples  of  dialectic  play 
between  instructor  and  student,  and  the  best  moments  of 
such  exercises  are  remembered  with  enthusiasm.  While 
instruction  by  recitation  continues  with  effectiveness  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  course,  especially  with  smaller  groups  of 
students,  yet  instruction  by  lecture  is  the  rule.  The  lec- 
turer may  have  to  face  a  class  which  enrolls  as  many  students 
as  the  whole  college  contained  a  generation  ago.  Two  or 
three  hundred  may  assemble  to  hear  him.  He  delivers  his 
lecture,  while  those  before  him  take  notes  or  sometimes,  as 
they  listen,  read  the  outline  of  his  discourse  in  a  printed 
syllabus  prepared  for  the  use  of  the  class,  and  add  such 
jottings  as  may  seem  desirable.  In  many  lecture  courses 
the  recitation  is  employed  as  an  effective  auxiliary. 

But  other  forms  of  instruction  find  place.  In  all  except 
the  elementary  courses  in  science  the  laboratory  plays  a  most 
important  part,  and  even  in  the  lectures  in  the  introductory 
courses  in  physics,  chemistry  or  biology  full  experimental 
illustration  is  the  rule.  Then,  too,  the  library  serves  as  a 
sort  of  laboratory  for  the  humanistic  studies.  Students  are 
encouraged  to  learn  the  use  of  the  college  library  as  auxiliary 
to  the  regular  exercises  of  the  curriculum.  Certain  books 
are  appointed  as  collateral  reading,  and  the  written  exami- 
nation at  the  end  of  the  term  often  takes  account  of  this 
outside  reading.  But  American  students  read  too  little. 
That  prolonged  reading,  which  gives  such  wide  and  assur- 
ing acquaintance  with  the  important  literature  of  any  sub- 
ject, is  as  yet  unattempted  in  a  really  adequate  degree. 

The  academic  year  is  divided  into  two,  and  sometimes 
into  three  terms.  At  the  end  of  each  term  the  student  is 
required  to  pass  a  fairly  rigorous  set  of  written  examina- 
tions. Oral  examinations  have  largely  disappeared.  Some- 
times a  high  record  of  attainment  in  recitations  during  the 
term  entitles  a  student  to  exemption  from  examination,  but 
this  is  not  common.  In  awarding  honors  for  scholarly  pro- 
ficiency  the   old    academic    college   confined    itself   almost 


229]  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  •    23 

entirely  to  general  honors  for  eminence  in  the  whole  round 
of  studies.  The  "  first  honor-man  "  in  older  days  was  the 
hero  and  pride  of  his  class.  At  graduation  he  usually  deliv- 
ered the  valedictory  or  else  the  Latin  salutatory.  Honors 
for  general  eminence  still  remain  in  most  colleges.  The 
rank  list  of  the  class  at  graduation  either  arranges  the  stu- 
dents in  ordinal  position  (in  which  case  the  first  honor-man 
still  appears)  or  else  divides  the  class  into  a  series  of  groups 
arranged  in  order  of  general  scholarly  merit.  In  such  cases 
the  old  first  honor-man  is  one  of  the  select  few  who  consti- 
tute the  highest  group  in  the  class.  But  special  honors  in 
particular  studies,  while  not  unknown  in  the  past,  are  really 
a  development  of  our  time.  Undoubtedly  they  have  tended 
to  increase  the  interest  of  abler  students  in  their  favorite 
studies.  A  student  trying  for  special  honors  is,  of  course, 
specializing  in  some  sense,  though  he  is  not  ordinarily  pur- 
suing original  research.  He  is  rather  enlarging  and  deepen- 
ing his  acquaintance  with  some  one  important  subject,  such 
as  history  or  mathematics.  But  sometimes  he  is  beginning 
independent  investigation,  and  thus  passes  beyond  the  col- 
legiate sphere  of  study. 

VIII    STUDENT  LIFE 

Let  us  try  to  picture  the  career  of  a  young  American  of 
the  usual  type  at  one  of  our  older  eastern  colleges  to-day. 
At  eighteen  years  of  age  he  has  completed  a  four-year  course 
in  some  secondary  school,  let  us  say  at  a  private  academy  in 
the  middle  states,  or  some  flourishing  western  high  school. 
He  does  not  need  to  make  the  long  journey  to  his  future 
college  in  order  to  be  examined  for  entrance,  but  finds  in 
the  distant  town  where  he  lives,  or  at  least  in  some  neigbor- 
ing  city,  a  local  entrance  examination  conducted  by  a  repre- 
sentative of  his  intended  college.  The  days  and  exact  hours 
of  examination  and  the  examination  papers  are  the  same  as 
for  the  examination  held  at  the  collej^e.  His  answers  are 
sent  on  to  be  marked  and  estimated.  In  a  week  or  two  he 
receives  notice  of  his  admission  to  the  freshman  class. 


24  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [23O 

When  the  long  summer  vacation  is  over  he  sets  out  for  his 
college.  Having  passed  his  entrance  examinations,  he  is  now- 
entitled  to  secure  rooms  in  one  of  the  dormitories,  or  else  to 
find  quarters  outside  the  college  campus  in  town.  His  name 
is  duly  enrolled  in  the  matriculation  book  and  his  student 
career  begins.  He  usually  comes  with  an  earnest  purpose 
to  study,  or  at  least  to  be  regular  in  all  his  attendance. 
His  newness  and  strangeness  naturally  pick  him.  out  for  a 
good  deal  of  notice  on  the  part  of  the  older  students,  especi- 
ally those  of  the  sophomore  class.  He  is  subjected  to  some 
good-natured  chaffing  and  guying,  and  perhaps  to  little 
indignities.  If  he  takes  it  good-naturedly,  the  annoyance 
soon  ceases.  If,  however,  he  shows  himself  bumptious  or 
opinionated  or  vain  or  "  very  fresh,"  his  troubles  are  apt  to 
continue.  Unfortunately  it  is  not  impossible  they  will  cul- 
minate in  some  act  of  mean  bullying,  known  in  college  par- 
lance as  "  hazing."  The  entering  freshman  is  too  often  like 
the  newly-arrived  slave  mentioned  in  Tacitus, —  conservis 
ludibrio  est ;  and  it  would  be  little  comfort  for  him  to  know 
that  in  this  respect  he  is  also  a  lineal  successor  of  the 
bejaunus,  the  freshman  "  fledgeling  "  among  the  students  of 
medieval  Paris.  But  the  daily  round  of  college  exercises 
demands  his  attention,  and  in  the  class  room  he  begins  to 
pass  through  a  process  of  attrition  more  beneficent  in  its 
spirit.  Under  the  steady  measuring  gaze  of  the  instructor, 
and  the  unuttered  but  very  real  judgment  of  his  classmates 
who  sit  about  him,  he  begins  to  measure  himself  and  to  be 
measured  by  college  standards.  Probably  for  the  first  time 
in  his  life  he  is  compelled  to  recognize  that  he  must  stand 
solely  on  his  merits.  The  helps  and  consolations  of  home 
and  of  the  limited  circle  in  which  his  boyhood  was  fostered 
and  sheltered  are  far  away.  He  is  learning  something  not 
down  in  the  books  !  and  what  he  is  thus  discovering  is  well 
pictured  in  the  words  of  Professor  Hibben  :  "There  is  a 
fair  field  to  all  and  no  favor.  Wealth  does  not  make  for  a 
man  nor  the  lack  of  it  ao-ainst  him.  The  students  live  their 
lives  upon  one  social  level.     There  is  a  deep-seated  intoler- 


231]  THF.   AMKRTCAX  COLLEGE  25 

ance  of  all  snobbishness  and  pretension.  The  dictum  of 
the  varsity  field,  '  No  grand-stand  playing  ! '  obtains  in  all 
quarters  of  the  undergraduate  life.  It  signifies  no  cant  in 
religion  ;  no  pedantry  in  scholarship ;  no  affectation  in 
manners  ;  no  pretence  in  friendship.  This  is  the  first  and 
enduring  lesson  which  the  freshman  must  learn.  He  learns 
and  he  forgets  many  other  lessons,  but  this  must  be  held  in 
lively  remembrance  until  it  has  become  a  second  nature." 
But  he  has  many  encouragements.  He  is  passing  out  of 
callow  youth  toward  manhood,  and  his  classmates  are  in  the 
same  situation  with  him.  Here  is  the  impulse  which  sud- 
denly sweeps  the  whole  entering  class  together  in  intimate 
comradeship.  And  so  he  starts  out  with  his  companions  on 
the  ups  and  downs  of  his  four-year  journey.  No  wonder  so 
many  college  graduates  say  freshman  year  was  the  most 
valuable  of  all;  —  it  was  surely  the  hardest.  His  college 
comradeship  continues  and  constitutes  his  social  world. 
Day  after  day,  term  after  term,  they  are  thrown  together  in 
all  the  relationships  of  student  life.  In  the  classroom,  at  the 
"  eating  clubs,"  at  the  athletic  games,  in  the  musical,  literary 
and  religious  societies,  in  scenes  of  exuberant  jollification 
and  careless  disorder,  and  in  endless  criticism  of  the  faculty 
or  of  the  various  courses  of  study,  how  their  frank  and 
unconventional  ways  constantly  surprise  and  bewilder  the 
common-place  American  philistine  !  You  may  pass  across 
the  lawns  of  many  a  campus  at  any  hour  of  the  day  and 
almost  any  hour  of  the  night  in  term-time,  and  rarely  is 
there  a  time  when  some  student  life  is  not  astir.  vSome  are 
thronging  toward  the  lecture  hall  to  the  punctual  ringing  of 
the  college  bell,  meeting  returning  throngs  whose  exercises 
are  just  finished.  They  are  walking  by  twos  or  threes, 
smoking  or  chatting  or  mildly  "  playing  horse  "  in  some  very 
pleasant  way,  unmindful  and  probably  unaware  of  Lord 
Chesterfield's  horrified  injunction  to  his  son  :  "  No  horse- 
play, I  beseech  of  you."  Or  they  are  thronging  to  fill  the 
"bleachers"  at  a  baseball  or  football  game  that  is  about  to 
be  played  on  the  college  grounds.     The  different  varieties 


26  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [232 

of  the  college  cheer  startle  the  air,  and  afford  some  color  of 
excuse  to  the  ingenious  hypothesis  that  our  student  cheers 
are  derived  from  Indian  war  whoops.  Or  else  when  they 
are  assembled  in  Sunday  chapel,  a  decorous  but  not  always 
solemn  audience,  their  capacity  for  "  simultaneous  emotion  " 
appears  in  their  spirited  singing  of  a  favorite  hymn,  or  per- 
haps shows  itself  in  the  sudden  sensation  that  sweeps  across 
the  chapel  like  a  lightly  rustling  breeze  in  response  to  an 
inopportune  remark  of  some  inexperienced  visiting  clergy- 
man. Or  in  the  moonlit  evenings  of  October,  the  time  when 
the  trees  are  turning  red  and  yellow,  their  long  processions 
pass  to  and  fro,  singing  college  songs.  Truly  the  American 
collegian  is  brimful  of  the  "gregarious  instinct." 

In  addition  to  this  ever-present  gregarious  comradeship 
which  environs  and  inspires  him,  our  entering  freshman 
finds  the  deeper  intimacies  of  close  individual  friendship. 
As  a  matter  of  course  he  has  some  one  most  intimate  friend, 
generally  his  room-mate  or  "chum."  Side  by  side  they 
mingle  with  their  fellows.  They  stand  together  and,  it  may 
be,  they  fall  together,  and  then  rise  together.  And  thus  the 
class  is  paired  off,  and  yet  not  to  the  lessening  of  the  deep 
class  fellowship.  Here  indeed  is  a  form  of  communism, 
temporary  and  local,  but  most  intense.  They  freely  use  things 
in  common,  not  excepting  the  property  of  the  college. 
The  distinction  between  victim  and  tintin  does  not  hold 
rigorously.  Td  rm^  (piAwy  y.ov^d  Said  the  ancient  poet,  and  so  say 
they.  Accordingly  a  desirable  hat  or  scarf  or  some  article 
of  athletic  costume  changes  ownership  again  and  again,  with 
nothing  sought  in  return.  They  are  welcome  to  enter  each 
others'  rooms  at  pleasure  and  use  their  friends'  tobacco  and 
stationery,  or  to  borrow  such  articles  of  furniture  and  bric-a- 
brac  as  will  brighten  their  own  rooms  for  some  special 
occasion.  The  doors  of  their  apartments  are  commonly  left 
open  ;  sometimes  a  latch-string  is  ingeniously  arranged  so 
the  door  can  be  opened  from  the  outside.  Money,  however, 
stands  on  a  different  basis  from  other  valuables,  It  is  freely 
loaned   for   an    indefinite   time,   but   is   strictly    repaid.     A 


2331  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  27 

Student  who  lends  his  fellow  money  at  interest  cannot  live 
in  a  college  community. 

Our  student,  unless  he  is  an  unusual  recluse,  takes  some 
part  in  athletics.  If  he  is  not  able  to  win  a  place  on  the 
football  team  or  baseball  nine  or  crew,  which  represents  his 
alma  mater  in  intercollegiate  contests,  he  is  very  likely  to  be 
found  playing  ball  in  some  organization  improvised  for  the 
day,  or  trying  his  hand  at  tennis  or  golf.  The  bicycle  is  a 
necessity  of  his  life,  and  on  it  he  rides  to  recitations  and 
lectures,  to  his  meals  and  to  the  athletic  field. 

He  has  still  other  interests  outside  the  curriculum.  He 
may  be  a  member  of  the  voluntary  religious  society  of  the 
students.  Perhaps  he  gets  a  place  on  the  glee  club  or 
dramatic  club.  He  may  become  one  of  the  editors  of  the 
daily  college  paper  or  of  the  monthly  literary  magazine. 
Perhaps  he  is  manager  or  assistant  business  manager  for 
one  or  another  undergraduate  organization.  Then  there 
are  the  whist  clubs  and  time-consuming  chess  clubs.  There 
are  also  circles  for  outside  reading  and  discussion  springing 
up  around  the  course  of  study,  as  well  as  the  societies  which 
train  in  speaking  and  debating.  Perhaps  he  may  win  the 
distinction  of  representing  his  college  in  an  intercollegiate 
debate,  and  success  in  intercollegiate  debating  is  highly 
coveted.  The  contestants  are  greatly  honored,  for  debat- 
ing and  athletics  form  the  principal  bond  of  union  between 
the  different  colleges  and  give  to  their  participants  intercol- 
legiate distinction. 

Until  the  student  passes  out  of  freshman  year,  he  is  not 
always  free  to  choose  what  kind  of  clothes  he  will  wear. 
A  freshman  wearing  a  tall  hat  and  carrying  a  walking-stick 
is  an  offense  to  the  other  classes.  In  some  colleges  fresh- 
men are  not  allowed  to  wear  the  colors,  except  on  rare  occa- 
sions. But  as  soon  as  he  becomes  a  sophomore  he  is  free  to 
do  as  he  likes.  Then  he  and  his  classmates  may  suddenly 
appear  wearing  various  hats,  picturesque  and  often  grotesque 
in  appearance,  and  revel  particularly  in  golfing  suits.  Toward 
the  close  of  the  course  their  daily  dress  becomes  more  con- 


28  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [234 

ventional,  though  the  universal  interest  in  athletics  continues 
to  affect  the  student  mode  all  the  way  to  the  end.  He  has 
other  amusements  besides  athletics,  and  these  again  are 
found  in  the  student  circle.  His  briarwood  pipe  goes  with 
him  almost  everywhere.  He  smokes  as  he  studies;  he 
smokes  at  the  games.  Seated  side  by  side  with  thousands 
of  other  students  and  alumni  at  the  great  intercollegiate 
matches,  he  helps  form  the  fragrant  cloud  of  blue  incense 
that  rises  from  the  "bleachersj'  and  drifts  over  the  field.  In 
the  evening,  when  the  work  of  the  scholastic  day  is  done,  he 
sits  with  his  comrades  at  an  unconventional  "  smoker,"  or  else 
they  may  gather  round  the  table  of  some  restaurant  with 
pipe  and  *'  stein  ; "  for  the  American  student  who  drinks  at 
all  prefers  beer  to  either  wine  or  whisky.  At  such  evening 
sessions  the  different  phases  of  student  politics  are  discussed 
again  and  again.  College  songs  are  sung,  the  air  being 
carried  in  that  sonorous  baritone  which  is  the  dominant  sound 
in  all  our  student  music.  Tales  and  jests  fill  out  the  hour. 
At  the  end  the  college  cheer  is  given  as  the  men  start  stroll- 
ing homeward,  singing  as  they  go.  Arrived  on  the  campus 
they  disperse,  and  their  good-night  calls  echo  from  the  doors 
and  windows  of  the  different  dormitories.  And  so  the  day 
ends  where  it  began ;  within  that  closed  circle  where  every 
student  lives  in  "  shouting  distance  "  of  the  others. 

Our  former  freshman  is  getting  on  bravely  tovv^ard  the  end 
of  his  course.  He  is  now  a  free,  familiar,  established  deni- 
zen of  his  college.  He  "owns  "  it.  New  freshmen,  unpleas- 
antly raw  and  needing  to  be  taught  their  place, —  new  fresh- 
men so  different  from  what  he  is  and  yet  so  like  what  he  once 
was,  are  crowding  in  at  the  bottom  of  the  course.  They 
look  up  to  him  and  his  compeers  in  the  senior  class  with  no 
r  *^le  awe  and  hope.  What  he  is,  they  may  become.  In 
.  m  they  "see  their  finish."  In  them  he  reluctantly  recalls 
his  beginnings.  The  closing  months  of  senior  year  pass 
swiftly  His  class  procession  is  preparing  to  march  out  into 
the  world,  and  there  take  its  place  as  a  higher  order  of  fresh- 
men in  the  long  file  of  the  classes  of  alumni  advancing  with 


235]  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  2^ 

their  thinning  ranks  toward  middle  manhood  and  beyond, — - 
and  when  commencement  is  over  his  undergraduate  Hfe  is 
ended. 

What  has  he  acquired  in  the  four  years  ?  At  least  some 
insight  into  the  terms  and  commonplaces  of  liberal  learning 
and  some  discipline  in  the  central  categories  of  knowledge, 
some  moral  training  acquired  in  the  punctual  performance 
of  perhaps  unwelcome  daily  duty  and  some  reverence  for 
things  intellectual  and  spiritual.  He  is  not  only  a  very 
different  man  from  what  he  was  when  he  entered,  but  very 
different  from  what  he  could  have  become  had  he  not 
entered.  He  is  wiser  socially.  He  is  becoming  cosmopol- 
itan. Awkwardness,  personal  eccentricity,  conceit,  diffidence, 
and  all  that  is  callow  or  forward  or  perverse  have  been  taken 
from  him,  so  far  as  the  ceaseless  attrition  of  his  fellow- 
students  and  professors  has  touched  him.  He  has  been 
unconsciously  developed  into  the  genuine  collegian.  He  is 
still  frank  and  unconventional.  But  he  has  become  more 
tolerant,  better  balanced,  more  cultivated  and  more  open- 
minded,  and  thus  better  able  to  direct  himself  and  others. 
This  is  the  priceless  service  his  college  has  rendered  him.  It 
is  little  wonder  his  student  affiliations  last.  As  he  goes  out 
to  take  his  place  among  the  thousands  of  his  fellow  alumni 
it  is  natural  that  his  and  their  filial  devotion  to  their 
academic  mother  should  last  through  life.  He  will  return 
with  his  class  at  their  annual  or  triennial  or  decennial  or 
later  pilgrimages  to  the  old  place.  No  matter  what  univer- 
sity he  may  subsequently  attend,  here  or  abroad,  his  college 
allegiance  remains  unshaken.  It  is  this  which  explains  the 
active  interest  shown  by  our  alumni.  In  the  best  sense  they 
advertise  their  college  to  the  public,  and  it  is  to  their  exer- 
tions the  recent  rapid  advancement  of  many  of  our  colleges 
is  largely  due. 

IX    ORGANIZATION  AND    ADMINISTRATION.       STUDENT    EXPENSES 

The  form  of  government  is  simple.  A  college  corpora- 
tion, legally  considered,  consists  of  a  body  of  men  who  have 


30  THE  AMERICAN   COLLEGE  [236 

obtained  the  charter  and  who  hold  and  administer  the  prop- 
erty. Where  a  particular  state  has  established  a  college  or 
even  a  university,  which  regularly  includes  a  college,  the 
members  of  the  corporation  are  commonly  styled  regents, 
and  are  appointed  by  the  state  to  hold  office  for  a  limited 
term  of  years.  But  most  colleges  have  been  established  as 
private  corporations.  In  this  case  the  title  is  vested  in  a 
board  of  trustees,  sometimes  composed  of  members  who  hold 
office  for  life,  or  else  composed  of  these  associated  with 
others  who  are  elected  for  a  term  of  years.  Boards  of  trus- 
tees holding  office  for  life  usually  constitute  a  close  corpo- 
ration, electing  their  own  successors  as  vacancies  occur. 
The  two  chief  functions  of  such  governing  bodies,  whether 
known  as  regents  or  trustees  or  by  any  other  name,  are  to 
safeguard  the  intent  of  the  charter  and  to  manage  the  prop- 
erty. They  give  stability  to  our  college  system.  To  carry 
out  the  main  purpose  for  which  the  charter  was  obtained 
they  create  a  faculty  of  professors  and  instructors  and 
entrust  the  general  headship  to  a  president.  The  president 
and  professors  usually  hold  office  for  life.  In  some  places 
provision  is  beginning  to  be  made  for  the  retirement  of  pro- 
fessors on  pensions  as  they  grow  old.  Instructors  and  some- 
times assistant  professors  are  appointed  for  a  limited  time, 
such  appointments  being  subject  to  renewal  or  promotion. 
In  the  larger  colleges  the  president  is  assisted  in  his  admin- 
istrative work  by  one  or  more  deans.  By  immemorial  tradi- 
tion the  president  and  faculty  are  charged  with  the  conduct  of 
the  entire  instruction  and  discipline.  They  have  the  power 
to  admit  and  dismiss  students.  The  conferring  of  degrees 
belongs  to  the  corporation,  but  this  power  is  almost  invari- 
ably exercised  according  to  recommendations  made  by  the 
faculty.  Honorary  degrees,  however,  are  sometimes  given 
by  the  trustees  or  regents  on  their  own  initiative. 

In  state  colleges  the  income  is  derived  from  taxation  ;  in 
others  from  endowments,  often  supplemented  by  annual  sub- 
scriptions for  special  purposes.  The  increase  of  income  of 
a  college  founded  by  a  state  depends  on  the  increase  of  the 


237]  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  31 

wealth  of  the  state  and  the  liberality  of  disposition  shown  by 
the  legislature.  State  colleges  receive  few  private  gifts. 
But  the  private  colleges  are  cut  off  from  dependence  on  the 
state,  and  have  to  rely  on  private  gifts.  This  stream  of  pri- 
vate liberality  flows  almost  unceasingly.  The  fact  that  many 
colleges  are  integral  parts  of  real  or  so-called  universities 
makes  it  difficult  to  say  how  much  the  specifically  collegiate 
endowments  and  incomes  amount  to.  But  a  few  significant 
facts  may  be  mentioned.  No  college  president,  unless  he  is 
at  the  same  time  the  president  of  a  university,  receives  as  high 
a  salary  as  ten  thousand  dollars  annually.  He  is  more  likely 
to  receive  four,  five  or  six  thousand  dollars.  Two  thousand 
dollars  is  considered  a  good  professor's  salary  in  small  col- 
leges ;  three  thousand  is  a  usual  salary  in  the  larger  colleges, 
while  few  professors  receive  more  than  four  thousand. 

The  expenses  of  individual  students  vary  greatly.  In 
some  places  there  is  no  charge  for  tuition ;  in  others  they 
must  pay  as  much  as  one  hundred  or  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars.  In  little  country  colleges  the  total  cost  for  a  year 
often  falls  within  three  hundred  dollars  ;  in  the  larger  old 
eastern  colleges,  drawing  patronage  from  all  parts  of  the 
land,  the  student  who  must  pay  all  his  bills  and  receives  no 
aid  in  the  form  of  a  scholarship  can  hardly  get  along  with  less 
than  six  or  seven  hundred  dollars,  exclusive  of  his  expenses 
in  the  summer  vacation.  The  average  expenses  in  some  of 
the  oldest  colleges,  according  to  tables  prepared  by  succes- 
sive senior  classes,  is  higher  than  this,  running  up  to  eight 
or  nine  hundred  dollars,  or  even  more.  But  these  institu- 
tions afford  the  student  of  limited  means  multiplied  oppor- 
tunities for  self-help.  There  are  many  instances  where  bright 
boys  have  been  able  to  win  their  way  through,  standing  high 
in  their  classes  and  at  the  same  time  supporting  themselves 
entirely  by  their  own  exertions.  Moreover  many  colleges 
possess  scholarships  which  are  open  to  able  students  who 
need  temporary  pecuniary  help.  The  young  American 
of  narrow  means,  if  he  be  of  fair  ability  and  industry,  can 
almost   always  manage    to   find    his   way    through    college 


32  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [238 


X    THE    COLLEGE    IS    AMERICAN 

The  college  lies  very  close  to  the  people.  Distinctions  of 
caste  may  manifest  themselves  occasionally,  and  yet  the  col- 
lege is  stoutly  and  we  believe  permanently  democratic.  Its 
relation  to  the  better  side  of  our  national  life  has  been  pro- 
foundly intimate  from  the  beginning.  The  graduates  of 
Harvard  and  Yale  in  New  England,  of  Princeton  and  Colum- 
bia in  the  middle  states,  and  of  the  College  of  William  and 
Mary  in  Virginia  contributed  powerfully  to  the  formation  of 
our  republic.  Edmund  Burke  attributed  the  "intractable 
spirit "  of  the  Americans  to  "  their  education,"  and  by  this 
he  meant  the  college  education.  "  The  colleges,"  wrote 
President  Stiles  of  Yale  shortly  after  the  revolution,  "have 
been  of  signal  advantage  in  the  present  day.  When  Britain 
withdrew  all  her  wisdom  from  America  this  revolution  found 
above  two  thousand  in  New  England  only,  who  had  been 
educated  in  the  colonies,  intermingling  with  the  people  and 
communicating  knowledge  among  them."  John  Adams  of 
Harvard  delighted  to  find  in  President  Witherspoon  of 
Princeton  "  as  high  a  son  of  liberty  as  any  in  America." 
Hampden-Sidney  college  in  Virginia,  founded  about  the 
time  of  the  revolution,  incorporated  in  its  charter  the  follow- 
ing clause  :  "  In  order  to  preserve  in  the  minds  of  the  stu- 
dents that  sacred  love  and  attachment  which  they  should 
ever  bear  to  the  principles  of  the  ever-glorious  revolution, 
the  greatest  care  and  caution  shall  be  used  in  selecting  such 
professors  and  masters,  to  the  end  that  no  person  shall  be 
so  elected  unless  the  uniform  tenor  of  his  conduct  manifest 
to  the  world  his  sincere  affection  for  the  liberty  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  of  America."  And  from  that 
day  to  this  the  collegiate  spirit  and  the  national  spirit  have 
been  at  one.  Rightly,  indeed,  did  our  appreciative  French 
visitor.  Baron  Pierre  de  Coubertin,  perceive  that  the  place 
to  find  "  the  true  Americans"  is  in  our  collei>-e  halls;  '' les 
vrais  Ameincaiyis,  la  base  de  la  nation,  Vespoir  de  ravenirT 
Scarcely  one  in  a  hundred  of  our  white  male  youth  of  college 


239]  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  33 

age  has  gone  to  college.  But  this  scanty  contingent  has 
furnished  one-half  of  all  the  presidents  of  the  United  States, 
most  of  the  justices  of  the  supreme  court,  not  far  from  one- 
half  of  the  cabinet  and  of  the  national  senate,  and  almost  a 
third  of  the  house  of  representatives.  No  other  single  class 
of  equal  numbers  has  been  so  potent  in  our  national  life. 

FIRST  NOTE A  FEW  STATISTICS 

In  the  reports  of  the  United  States  commissioner  of 
education,  colleges,  universities,  schools  of  technology  and 
professional  schools  are  classed  under  the  general  heading 
of  "  Institutions  for  Higher  Education."  The  latest  report 
is  for  the  academic  year  ending  July  first,  1897.  The  statis- 
tics for  colleges  are  to  be  found  in  chapter  XXXVI  (pp. 
1648-1755).  A  study  of  the  tables  given  discloses  clearly 
the  difficulty  of  separating  the  whole  body  of  collegiate 
facts  by  themselves  and  the  further  difficulty  of  distinguish- 
ing between  the  really  substantial  and  the  nominal  institu- 
tions. "  One  of  the  most  discouraging  features  in  our  system 
of  higher  education,"  says  the  commissioner  in  his  report 
(p.  1647),  "is  the  lack  of  any  definite,  or,  in  fact,  in  a  large 
number  of  states  the  lack  of  any  requirements  or  conditions 
exacted  of  institutions  when  they  are  chartered  and  author- 
ized to  confer  degrees.  This  condition  of  affairs  is  largely, 
if  not  entirely,  responsible  for  the  large  number  of  weak, 
so-called  colleges  and  universities  scattered  throughout  our 
country,  institutions  that  are  no  better  than  high  schools, 
and  in  a  large  number  of  cases  do  not  furnish  as  good  an 
education  as  may  be  obtained  in  good  secondary  schools." 
It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  more  than  half  of  our 
professed  colleges  are  not  worthy  of  the  name.  Accord- 
ingly since  it  is  impossible  to  separate  and  evaluate  in 
an  exact  way  the  purely  collegiate  statistics,  especially  in 
short  limits,  this  paper  has  been  devoted  to  general  char- 
acterization and  description.  We  are  still  far  from  having 
a  complete  account  of  the  history  and  present  condition  of 
our  colleges.     While  good  special  histories  exist  for  some 


'34  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [24O 

of  the  older  institutions,  no  comprehensive  and  detailed 
general  account  of  adequate  character  has  yet  been  written. 
In  view  of  the  limited  means  at  its  command,  the  bureau  of 
education  in  Washington  from  year  to  year  has  done  all 
that  could  be  asked  in  its  reports.  But  it  is  greatly  to  be 
desired  that  congress  shall  furnish  the  commissioner  of  edu- 
cation with  the  means  necessary  to  institute  an  elaborate 
and  searching  investigation,  which  shall  bring  to  light  the 
real  status,  the  exact  inner  condition  of  all  the  colleges. 

In  the  report  mentioned,  statistics  for  universities  and 
colleges  are  at  times  necessarily  given  together.  Every  uni- 
versity, with  hardly  an  exception,  contains  a  college.  The 
whole  number  of  professedly  collegiate  students  enrolled  in 
universities  and  colleges  for  men  and  for  both  sexes  and  for 
women  is  84,955  (P-  1654).  The  male  students  number 
52,439  (p.  1670).  The  estimated  population  of  the  United 
States  in  1896  was  70,595,321,  or  one  college  student  to  831 
of  the  population.  The  states  which  enroll  the  greatest 
number  of  students  attending  college  are  : 

Massachusetts 8  in 

New  York 7  257 

Pennsylvania 6  527 

Ohio 5  257 

IlHnois 5  692 

College  students  are  found  in  greatest  numbers  in  the 
belt  beginning  in  New  England,  passing  southwestward 
through  the  middle  states,  and  thence  extending  broadly 
across  the  middle  west.  These  northeastern  and  north- 
central  portions  contain  70  per  cent  of  the  college  students 
and  63  per  cent  of  the  population  of  the  whole  country ; 
114  colleges,  exclusive  of  colleges  for  women,  enrolling 
31,941  students  and  generally  possessing  the  largest  endow- 
ments,  are  under  no  ecclesiastical  control  ;  59  colleges, 
enrolling  5,954,  are  Roman  Catholic ;  284  are  under  the 
control  of  various  Protestant  denominations  and  enroll 
29,104.  It  thus  appears  that  the  division  of  student  enroll- 
ment between   non-sectarian   and  sectarian  colleges   is   not 


24  I  J  THE  A.MKRICAN  COLLEGE  35 

very  uneven,  but  the  non-sectarian  colleges  show  an  average 
enrollment  of  nearly  three  hundred  and  the  church  colleges 
of  about  one  hundred. 

The  number  of  professors  and  instructors  in  all  colleges, 
except  colleges  for  women  only,  is  7,228;  749  of  these  are 
women.  So  far  as  reported  there  were  31,762  students  pur- 
suing the  course  for  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts  ;  1 1,812  the 
courses  leading  to  the  degrees  of  bachelor  of  letters  and 
bachelor  of  philosophy;  12,711  the  course  leading  to  the 
degree  of  bachelor  of  science,  and  4,190  the  courses  leading 
to  various  other  first  degrees  of  minor  importance.  The  total 
is  60,475.  These  figures  indicate  that  a  little  more  than 
half  our  collegiate  undergraduates,  who  seek  any  degree, 
are  studying  for  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts,  which  still 
generally  means,  with  some  important  exceptions,  that  they 
have  had  a  classical  education.  The  figures  for  the  bachelor 
of  letters  and  the  bachelor  of  philosophy  may  be  properly 
associated  in  one  total  as  representing  the  intermediate  type, 
which  enrolls  a  little  more  than  one-third  of  the  number  study- 
ing for  the  bachelor  of  arts.  The  figures  for  the  bachelor  of 
science,  as  will  be  observed,  do  not  materially  differ  from  the 
total  for  the  bachelor  of  philosophy  and  bachelor  of  letters. 
Turning  to  the  table  on  page  1673  it  appears  that  the  pro- 
portion of  students  who  received  the  degree  of  bachelor  of 
arts  at  graduation  in  1897,  as  compared  with  other  bachelor's 
degrees,  is  very  nearly  the  same  as  the  proportion  indicated 
by  the  figures  which  represent  undergraduate  enrollment. 

SECOND    note: LIST    OF    AMERICAN    COLLEGES    ARRANGED    IN 

CHRONOLOGICAL    ORDER 

As  has  been  explained,  it  is  impossible  at  present  to  effect 
a  perfect  statistical  separation  between  colleges  and  univer- 
sities. The  list  given  below  embraces  all  colleges  and  uni- 
versities reported  up  to  July  first,  1897,  excepting  those  for 
women  only.  It  is  primarily  a  college  list,  although  the 
universities  of  the  country  appear  in  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  older  real   universities  have  usually  grown  up  around 


36  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  [242 

colleges,  and  strong  universities  of  recent  establishment,  such 
as  Johns  Hopkins  and  Chicago,  regularly  contain  colleges. 
Clark  university  in  Massachusetts  is  the  only  significant 
exception  ;  it  has  no  undergraduate  department.  The  names 
of  many  of  the  older  colleges  have  changed.  Harvard  col- 
lege is  now  the  center  of  Harvard  university  and  Yale  col- 
lege of  Yale  university.  Princeton  university  originated 
under  the  name  of  the  college  of  New  Jersey,  and  Colum- 
bia university  was  Kings  college.  The  most  important 
common  feature  in  the  entire  list  is  the  corporate  right  to 
grant  the  bachelor's  degree. 

The  list  is  classified  under  five  periods.  The  first  includes 
eleven  colleges  founded  before  the  American  revolution. 
They  form  a  distinct  class  by  themselves,  representing  the 
colonial  and  revolutionary  influences.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
they  all  lie  along  the  narrow  strip  of  Atlantic  coast,  extend- 
ing southwestward  from  Massachusetts  to  Virginia.  The 
second  group  is  composed  of  twelve  colleges  founded  imme- 
diately after  the  revolution.  They  likewise  form  a  sepa- 
rable class.  In  spirit  they  were  repetitions  of  the  earlier 
colleges,  and  were  planted  here  and  there  in  the  newer  parts 
of  the  country.  The  third  class  consists  of  thirty-three  col- 
leges founded  between  the  years  1800  and  1830.  The  latter 
date  is  somewhat  arbitrary  ;  but  the  thirty  years  are  taken  to 
include  the  first  marked  development  of  the  United  States 
previous  to  the  wave  of  European  immigration  which  set 
in  strongly  after  1830.  The  fourth  class  contains  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  colleges.  They  were  founded  in  a  period 
when  the  country  was  rapidly  settling  and  developing.  A 
great  wave  of  immigration  was  flowing  in,  and  the  railroad 
and  telegraph  were  facilitating  the  westward  distribution  of 
the  new  population.  The  period  was  naturally  brought  to  an 
end  by  the  civil  war.  The  fifth  class  extends  from  the  close 
of  the  civil  war  in  1865  to  the  present  time.  The  interrupted 
national  development  enters  energetically  on  a  new  period 
and  is  represented  on  this  list  by  the  foundation  of  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty-six  colleges, —  just  one-half  of  the  entire  list. 


243] 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


0/ 


I    Before  the  American  Revolution     (ii) 


1636  Harvard  University,  Massachu- 
setts 

1693  College  of  William  and  Mary, 
Virginia 

1701     Yale  University,  Connecticut 

1746  Princeton  University,  New  Jer- 
sey 

1749  Washington  and  Lee  University, 
Virginia 


1800 
1800 
1801 
1802 
1802 

1804 
1805 

1807 
1808 

t8l2 

1817 
1818 
1819 
1819 
1819 
(819 


1751     University      of      Pennsylvania, 

Pennsylvania 
1754     Columbia  University,  New  York 
1764     Brown  University,  Rhode  Island 
1766     Rutgers  College,  New  Jersey 
1770     Dartmouth  College,  New  Hamp- 
shire 
1776     Hampden-Sidney    College,    Vir- 
ginia 


//    From  the  American  Revolution  to  1800     (12) 


1783     Dickinson  College,  Pennsylvania 
1783     Washington  College,  Maryland 
1785     College     of     Charleston,     South 

Carolina 
1785     University    of    Nashville,    Ten- 
nessee 
1789     St.  John's  College,  Maryland 
1791     Georgetown  University,  District 
of  Columbia 


1793  Williams  College,  Massachusetts 

1794  Greenville    and    Tusculum    Col- 

lege, Tennessee 

1794  University    of    Tennessee,    Ten- 

nessee 

1795  Union  College,  New  York 

1795     University    of    North    Carolina, 

North  Carolina 
1795     Washington  College,  Tennessee 


///    From  1800  to  j8jo     (33) 


Middlebury  College,  Vermont 
University  of  Vermont,  Vermont 
University  of  Georgia,  Georgia 
Bowdoin  College,  Maine 
Washington    and  Jefferson   Col- 
lege, Pennsylvania 
Ohio  University,  Ohio 
South    Carolina    College,    South 

Carolina 
Moravian  College,  Pennsylvania 
Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Mary- 
land 
Hamilton  College,  New  York 
Allegheny  College,  Pennsylvania 
Colby  University,  Maine 
Center  College,  Kentucky 
Colgate  University,  New  York 
Maryville  College,  Tennessee 
Western   University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, Pennsylvania 


of 


1820  Gonzaga     College,    District 

Columbia 

1820  Indiana  University,  Indiana 

1820  St.  Mary's  College,  Kentucky 

1821  Amherst  College,    Massachusetts 
1S21  Columbian    University,    District 

of  Columbia 

1822  Hobart  College,  New  York 
1824  Miami  University,  Ohio 

1824  Trinity  College,  Connecticut 

1825  P'ranklin  College,  Ohio 
1825  Kenyon  College,  Ohio 

1825  University  of  Virginia,  Virginia 

1826  Western      Reserve      University, 

Ohio 

1827  Shurtleff  College,  Illinois 

1828  McKendree  College,  Illinois 

1829  (jeorgetown  College,  Kentucky 
1829  Illinois  College,  Illinois 

1829  St,  Louis  University,  Missouri 


IV    From  i8jo  to  i86s     (180) 


X830     Spring  Hill  College,  Alabama 
1831     Dennison  University,  Ohio 
1831     New  ^ork  University,  New  York 


1831     University  of  Alabama,  Alabama 
1831     Wesleyan  University.   Connecti- 
cut 


3^ 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


[244 


1832     Hanover  College,  Indiana  1843 

1832     Lafayette  College,  Pennsylvania  1843 

1832     Pennsylvania    College,    Pennsyl-  1844 

vania  1844 

1832     Randolph    Macon    College,  Vir-  1844 

ginia  1844 

1532  Richmond  College,  Virginia  1845 

1832  Wabash  College,  Indiana  1845 

1833  Haverford  College,  Pennsylvania  1846 

1533  Oberlin  College,  Ohio  1846 

1834  Delaware  College,  Delaware 

1834     Franklin  College,  Indiana  1846 

1834     Tulane  University,  Louisiana  1846 

1834  Wake     Forest      College,     North  1846 

Carolina 

1835  Marietta  College,  Ohio  1847 

1835  Richmond  College,  Ohio  1847 

1836  Alfred  University,  New  York  1847 
1836     Franklin  and  Marshall  College, 

Pennsylvania  1847 

1836  Kentucky  University,  Kentucky 

1837  Central    High    School,    Pennsyl-  1S47 

vania 

1837     Davidson   College,   North   Caro-  1847 

lina  1847 
1837     De  Pauw  University,  Indiana 

1837     Emory  College,  Georgia  1847 

1837     Guilford  College,  North  Carolina  1848 

1837     Knox  College,  Illinois  1848 

1837     Mercer  University,  Georgia  1848 

1837     Muskingum  College,  Ohio  1848 

1837  University  of  Michigan,   Michi-  1848 

gan 

1838  Emory  and   Henry  College,  Vir-  1849 

ginia  1849 

1839  Erskine  College,  South  Carolina  1849 

1839  Concordia  College,  Indiana  1849 

1840  St.  Xavier  College,  Ohio 

1841  Bethany  College,  West  Virginia  1849 
1841     Centenary  College  of  Louisiana, 

Louisiana  1849 

1841  Howard  College,  Alabama 

1842  Cumberland      University,      Ten-  1850 

nessee  1850 

1842     University  of  Notre  Dame,  Indi-  1850 

ana  1S50 

1842     University  of  the  State  of  Miss-  1850 

ouri,  Missouri  1850 

1842  Villanova  College,  Pennsylvania 

1843  Albion  College,  Michigan  1850 
1843     College  of  the  Holy  Cross,  Mas- 
sachusetts 1850 


New  Windsor  College,  Maryland 
St.  Vincent's  College,  Missouri 
Iowa  Wesleyan  University,  Iowa 
Milton  College,  Wisconsin 
Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  Ohio 
Willamette  University,  Oregon 
Baylor  University,  Texas 
Wittenberg  College,  Ohio 
Baldwin  University,  Ohio 
Bucknell     University,     Pennsyl- 
vania 
Mount  Union  College,  Ohio 
St.  John's  College,  New  York 
St.   Vincent's    College,    Pennsyl- 
vania 
Beloit  College,  Wisconsin 
Earlham  College,  Indiana 
College  of  the  City  of  New  York, 

New  York 
College  of  the  Immaculate  Con- 
ception, Louisiana 
College    of    St.    Francis    Xavier, 

New  York 
Otterbein  University,  Ohio 
Southwestern  Baptist  University, 

Tennessee 
Taylor  University,  Indiana 
Burritt  College,  Tennessee 
Iowa  College,  Iowa 
Pacific  University,  Oregon 
St.  Charles  College,  Maryland 
University   of   Mississippi,   Mis- 
sissippi 
Geneva  College,  Pennsylvania 
Hiwasse  College,  Tennessee 
Lawrence  University,  Wisconsin 
South    Kentucky    College,    Ken- 
tucky 
William    Jewell     College,     Mis- 
souri 
University    of    Wisconsin,    Wis- 
consin 
Austin  College,  Texas 
Bethel  College,  Tennessee 
Capital  University,  Ohio 
Heidelberg  University,  Ohio 
Hiram  College,  Ohio 
Illinois     Wesleyan     University, 

Illinois 
University    of    Rochester,    New 

York 
University  of  Utah,  Utah 


245] 

i85i 

1851 
1851 

1851 
1851 
1851 

1852 
1852 

1852 
1852 
1852 
1852 

1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1853 

1853 
1854 

1854 
1854 

1854 
1854 
1855 
1855 
1855 
1855 

1855 
1855 
1855 
1855 
1855 

1855 

1855 

1855 
1855 
1856 
1S56 

1S56 
1856 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


39 


Carson    and    Newman    College,  1856 
Tennessee  1856 
Catawba  College,  North  Carolina 
Christian  Brothers  College,  Mis-  1856 
souri  1856 
Santa  Clara  College,  California  1856 
Trinity  College,  North  Carolina  1856 
University   of   the   Pacific,  Cali-  1857 
fornia  1857 
Antioch  College,  Ohio  1857 
Furman  University,  South  Caro-  1857 
lina  1857 
Lombard  University,  Illinois  1857 
Loyola  College,  Maryland 
Mississippi  College,   Mississippi  1857 
Westminster    College,    Pennsyl-  1857 
vania  1858 
Central  University  of  Iowa,  Iowa  1858 
Hedding  College,  Iowa 
Ripon  College,  Wisconsin  1858 
Roanoke  College,  Virginia  1858 
Rutherford  College,  North  Caro- 
lina 1858 
Westiaiustcr  College,  Missouri  1858 
Bethel  College,  Kentucky 
Hamline  University,  Minnesota  1858 
Lincoln      University.      Pennsyl- 
vania 1859 
St.  Mary's  University,  Texas  1859 
Wofford  College,  South  Carolina  1859 
Amity  College,  Iowa  1859 
Berea  College,  Kentucky  1859 
Butler  College,  Indiana 
Central     Pennsylvania    College,  1859 
Pennsylvania  1859 
Christian  University,  Missouri 
Eureka  College,  Illinois  1859 
Hillsdale  College,  Michigan 
Kalamazoo  College,  Michigan  '859 
Northwestern    University,     Uli-  1859 
nois  1859 
Polytechnic   Institute   of   Brook-  1859 

lyn.  New  V'ork 

Southwestern  Presbyterian   Uni-  i860 

versity,  Tennessee  i860 
St.  Ignatius  College,  California 

Tufts  College,  Massachusetts  i860 
Keachie  College,  Louisiana 

Mars  Hill  College,  North  Caro-  i860 

lina 

Monmouth  College,  Illinois  i860 

Mourcs  Hill  College,  In-linna  i860 


Niagara  University,  New  York 
Seminary  of  St.  Francis  of  Sales, 

Wisconsin 
State  University  of  Iowa,  Iowa 
Western  College,  Iowa 
Wilberforce  University,  Ohio 
Setcn  Hall  College,  New  Jersey 
Bowdon  College,  Georgia 
Central  College,  Missouri 
Cornell  College,  Iowa 
Highland  University,  Kansas 
Rock  Hill  College,  Maryland 
Seminary  West  of   the  Suwanee 

River,  Florida 
St.  Meinrad  College,  Indiana 
Upper  Iowa  University,  Iowa 
Baker  University,  Kansas 
Grand     River    Christian     Union 

College,  Missouri 
Legrange  College,  Missouri 
Newberry   College,  South   Caro- 
lina 
St.  Benedict's  College,  Kansas 
St.    Lawrence    University,    New 

York 
Susquehanna    University,    Penn- 
sylvania 
Adrian  College,  Michigan 
Lenox  College,  Iowa 
McMinnville  College,  Oregon 
Mission  House,  Wisconsin 
North    Carolina  College,    North 

Carolina 
Olivet  College,  Michigan 
Pennsylvania       State       College, 

Pennsylvania 
St.  Bonaventure's  College,   New 

York 
St.  Francis  College,  New  York 
Southern  University,  Alabama 
Union  Christian  College,  Indiana 
Washington      University,      Mis- 
souri 
Augustana  College,  Illinois 
Louisiana  State  University,  Lou- 
isiana 
Kentucky      Wesleyan      College, 

Kentucky 
St.  Francis  Solanus  College,  Illi- 
nois 
St.  Stephen's  College,  New  York 
Wheaton  College,  Illinois 


40 

i86i 

1861 
1861 
1861 

1862 

1862 
1862 

1862 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


[246 


1865 
1865 
1865 
1865 
1865 

1865 

1865 
1865 
1865 
1865 
1865 
1865 
1866 


1866 

1866 
1866 

1866 
1866 
1866 
1866 
1866 
1866 
1866 
1867 
1867 

1867 
1867 
1867 

1867 


Blackburn  University,  Illinois    '  1862 
Luther  College,  Iowa 

Northwestern  College,  Illinois  1863 

Pacific  Methodist  College,  Cali-  1863 

fornia  1863 

GustavusAdolphus  College,  Min-  1863 

nesota 

Oskaloosa  College,  Iowa  1864 

Pennsylvania    Military    College,  1864 

Pennsylvania 

St.    Joseph's    Diocesan    College,  1864 

Illinois  1864 


University  of  Washington,  Wash- 
ington 
Bates  College,  Maine 
Boston  College,  Massachusetts 
Manhattan  College,  New  York 
Roger  Williams  University,  Ten- 
nessee 
Central  Wesleyan  College,  Mo. 
Gallaudet    College,    District    of 

Columbia 
German  Wallace  College,  Ohio 
University  of  Denver,  Colorado 


V    From  186^  to  the  Present  Time     (236) 


Des  Moines  College,  Iowa 
Hope  College,  Michigan 
Jefferson  College,  Louisiana 
Lane  University,  Kansas 
Northwestern     University,   Wis- 
consin 
Northern    Illinois   College,  Illi- 
nois 
Ottawa  University,  Kansas 
Shaw  University,  North  Carolina 
St.  Vincent's  College,  California 
University  Institute,  Mississippi 
Washburn  College,  Kansas 
Westfield  College,  Illinois 
Agricultural      and      Mechanical 
College     of     Kentucky,     Ken- 
tucky 
Central  Tennessee  College,  Ten- 
nessee 
Fisk  University,  Tennessee 
Lebanon  Valley   College,  Penn- 
sylvania 
Lehigh  University,  Pennsylvania 
Lincoln  University,  Illinois 
Pritchett  College,  Missouri 
Scio  College,  Ohio 
University  of  Kansas,  Kansas 
Tabor  College,  Iowa 
Whitman  College,  Washington 
Ewing  College,  Illinois 
Howard   University,  District  of 

Columbia 
King  College,  Tennessee 
LaSalle  College,  Pennsylvania 
Muhlenberg     College,     Pennsyl- 
vania 
Philomath  College,  Oregon 


1867     Ridgeville  College,  Indiana 
1867     Simpson  CoLege,  Iowa 
1867     St.  John's  University,  Minnesota 
1867     U.    S.    Grant     University,     Ten- 
nessee 

1867  West  Virginia  University,  West 

Virginia 
i868     Avalon  College,  Missouri 

1868  Biddle  University,  North   Caro- 

lina 
1868     Clark  University,  Georgia 
1868     Cornell  University,  New  York 
1868     St.  Benedict's  College,  New  Jer- 
sey. 
1868     St.  Viateur's  College,  Illinois 
1868     University  of  Illinois,  Illinois 
1868     University  of  Minnesota,  Minne- 
sota 
1868     University    of    the    South,    Ten- 
nessee 
1868     Wartburg  College,  Iowa 

1868  Western       Maryland        College, 

Maryland 
i86g     Atlanta  University,  Georgia 

1869  Augsburg    Seminary,   Minnesota 
i86g     Claflin    University,  South  Caro- 
lina 

i86g     Rust  University,  Mississippi 
1869     St.  Ignatius'  College,  Illinois 
1869     St.  Mary's  College,  KansaS 
1869     Straight  University,  Louisiana 
1869     Swarthmore     College,     Pennsyl- 
vania 
1869     Trinity  University,  Texas 

1869  University    of    California,    Cali- 

fornia 

1870  California  College,  California 


247] 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


41 


1870  Carleton  College,  Minnesota  1876 
1870     Carthage  College,  Illinois 

1870     Canisius  College,  New  York  1876 

1870     Leland  University,  Louisiana  1876 

1870     Ohio  State  University,  Ohio  1876 

1870     St.  John's  College,  New  York  1876 

1870     Thiel  College,  Pennsylvania  1876 

1870     University  of  Wooster,  Ohio  1877 

1870     Ursinus  College,  Pennsylvania  1877 

1870  Wilmington  College,  Ohio  1877 

1871  Christian  Brothers  College,  Ten- 

nessee 1877 

1871     Evangelical     Proseminary,     Illi-  1878 

nois 

1871     Syracuse   University,  New  York  1878 

1871  University    of    Nebraska,    Neb-  1878 

raska  1878 

1872  Arkansas  College,  Arkansas  1878 
1872     Arkansas  Industrial  University,  1878 

Arkansas 

1872     Boston     University,     Massachu-  1878 

setts 

1872     Buchtel  College,  Ohio  1880 

1872     Doane  College,  Nebraska  1880 

1872     Morrisville  College,  Missouri  1880 

1872  St.  Joseph's  College,  Ohio 

1873  Add-Ran  University,  Texas  1880 
1873     Drury  College,  Missouri 

1873     German  College,  Iowa  1880 

1873     New  Orleans  University,  Louisi-  1880 

ana 

1873     North  Georgia  Agricultural  Col-  i88r 

lege,  Georgia  1881 

1873     Penn  College,  Iowa  1881 

1873     Southwestern   University,  Texas  1881 

1873     University  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio  1S81 

1873     Weaverville  College,  North  Caro-  1882 

lina  1882 

1873  Wiley  University,  Texas  1882 

1874  Battle  Creek  College,  Michigan  1882 
1874  Central  University,  Kentucky  1882 
1874     Colorado  College,  Colorado  18S2 

1874  Sweetwater  College,  Tennessee 

1875  Knoxville  College,  Tennessee  1882 
1875  Liberty  College,  Kentucky  1882 
1875  Park  College,  Missouri  1882 
1875     St.  Olaf  College,  Minnesota 

1875  Vanderbilt    University,   Tennes-  1883 

see  1883 

1876  College    of    the    Sacred     Heart,  1883 

Colorado  1883 
1876     Chaddock  College,  Illinois 


Johns  Hopkins  University,  Mary- 
land 
Lake  Forest  University,  Illinois 
Morgan  College,  Maryland 
Parsons  College,  Iowa 
Rio  Grande  College,  Ohio 
University  of  Oregon,  Oregon 
rJetroit  College,  Michigan 
Ogden  College,  Kentucky 
Philander  Smith  College,  Arkan- 
sas 
University  of  Colorado,  Colorado 
Alabama  Baptist  Colored  Univer- 
sity, Alabama 
Brigham  Young  College,  Utah 
College  of  Montana,  Montana 
Creighton  College,  Nebraska 
Holy  Ghost  College, Pennsylvania 
Southwest  Baptist  College,  Mis- 
souri 
St.  Mary's  College,  North  Caro- 
lina 
Allen  University,  South  Carolina 
Drake  University,  Iowa 
Indian    University,   Indian  Ter- 
ritory 
Presbyterian    College    of    South 

Carolina,  South  Carolina 
University  of  Omaha,  Nebraska 
University  of  Southern  Califor- 
nia, California 
Bethany  College,  Kansas 
Fort  Worth  University,  Texas 
Marquette  College,  Wisconsin 
Paul  Quinn  College,  Texas 
St.  Edward's  College,  Texas 
Bridgewater  College,  Virginia 
Campbell  University,  Kansas 
Coe  College,  Iowa 
Gates  College,  Nebraska 
Hastings  College,  Nebraska 
Livingstone  College,  North  Caro- 
lina 
Milligan  College,  Tennessee 
Pike  College,  Missouri 
University     of     South     Dakota, 

South  Dakota 
University  of  Texas,  Texas 
Yankton  College,  South  Dakota 
College  of  Emporia,  Kansas 
John      B.      Stetson     University, 
Florida 


42 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


[248 


1883     Missouri  Wesleyau  College,  Mis-  1888 

souri  1888 

1883     Tarkio  College,  Missouri  1888 

1883  Pierre  University,  South  Dakota 

1884  Fairfield  College,  Nebraska  1889 
1884     Florida   State  Agricultural    Col- 
lege, Florida  1889 

1884     Grove  City  College,  Pennsylvania 

1884     Hendrix  College,  Arkansas  1889 

1884  University    of     North     Dakota,  1889 

North  Dakota 

1885  Colfax  College,  Washington  1890 
1885     Dakota  College,  South  Dakota 

18S5     Defiance  College,  Ohio  1890 

1885     French  American  College,  Massa-  1890 

chusetts 

1885     Lafayette  College,  Alabama  1890 

1885     Macalester  College,  Minnesota  1890 

1885     Morris  Brown  College,  Georgia  i8go 

1885  Young    L.    G.    Harris    College,  1890 

Georgia  1890 

1886  Findlay  College,  Ohio 

1886     Florida      Conference      College,  i8go 

Florida  1890 
1886     Kansas     Wesleyan      University, 

Kansas  1890 

1886     Ouachita  Baptist  College,  Arkan-  1890 

sas  1890 
1886     Rollins  College,  Florida 

1886     Searcy  College,  Arkansas  1890 

1886     Southwest  Kansas  College,  Kan-  1891 

sas 

1886     St.  Ignatius  College,  Ohio  1891 

1886     State     University     of     Nevada,  1891 

Nevada  1891 

1886  Union  College,  Kentucky  1891 

1887  Alma  College,  Michigan  1891 
1887     Cooper  Memorial  College,  Kan-  1891 

sas  1891 
1887     Fargo  College,  North  Dakota 

1887     Gonzaga  College,  Washington  1891 

1887     Midland  College,  Kansas  1891 

1887     Occidental  College,  California  1891 

1887  University    of    Wyoming,    Wyo-  1891 

ming  1891 

1888  Barboursville  College,  West  Vir- 

ginia 1891 

1888     Cotner  University,  Nebraska  1891 

1888     Nannie    Lou    Warthen    College.  1892 

Georgia 

1888     Nebraska  Wesleyan  University,  1892 

Nebraska  1892 


Parker  College,  Minnesota 
Pomona  College,  California 
Scarritt      Collegiate      Institute, 

Missouri 
Catholic  University  of  America, 

District  of  Columbia 
(Clark      University,     Massachu- 
setts) 
Lafayette  Seminary,  Oregon 
Missouri    Valley    College,    Mis- 
souri 
Arkadelphia  Methodist  College, 

Arkansas 
Benzonia  College,  Michigan 
Black   Hills  College,   South   Da- 
kota 
Blount  College,  Alabama 
Elon  College,  North  Carolina 
Howard  Payne  College,  Texas 
Lineville  College,  Alabama 
Montana    Wesleyan    University, 

Montana 
Morningside  College,  Iowa 
Puget  Sound  University,  Wash- 
ington 
St.  Leo  Military  College,  Florida 
Volant  College,  Pennsylvania 
Whitworth     College,     Washing- 
ton 
York  College,  Nebraska 
Arkansas    Cumberland    College 

Arkansas 
Austin  College,  Illinois 
Buena  Vista  College,  Iowa 
Charles  City  College,  Iowa 
Duquesne  College,  Pennsylvania 
Greer  College,  Illinois 
Lenoir  College,  North  Carolina 
Leland  Stanford  Junior  Univer- 
sity, California 
Pacific  College,  Oregon 
Polytechnic  College,  Texas 
Portland  University,  Oregon 
St.  Bede  College,  Illinois 
Throop     Polytechnic    Institute, 

California 
Union  College,  Nebiaska 
University  of  Arizona,  Arizona 
Central   Christian   College,    .Mis- 
souri 
Fairmount  College,  Kansas 
Henry  College,  Texas 


249] 


THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE 


43 


1892     Millsaps  College,  Mississippi  1893 

1892     Northwest  Missouri  College,  Mis-  1893 

souri  1893 
1892     Red    River    Valley    University, 

North  Dakota  1893 

1892     St.  Bernard  College,  Alabama  1893 
1892     University  of  Chicago,  Illinois 

1892     University  of  Idaho,  Idaho  1894 

1892     University   of   Oklahoma,    Okla-  1894 

homa 

1892     Vashon  College,  Washington  1894 

1892  Walla  Walla  College,  Washing-  1895 

ton  1896 

1893  American    Temperance    Univer-  1897 

sity,  Tennessee 


Fredericksburg  College,  Virginia 

Lima  College,  Ohio 

Mountain  Home  Baptist  College, 

Arkansas 
Soule  College,  Kansas 
St.     John's     Lutheran     College, 

Kansas 
Cedarville  College,  Ohio 
Henry   Kendall  College,  Indian 

Territory 
St.  Louis  College,  Texas 
University  of  Montana,  Montana 
Adelphi  College,  New  York 
Atlanta  Baptist  College,  Georgia 


( 
Date  Due 

■   -  -. 

1 

f) 

] 

U226.W513 

^f-e  American  college. 


Pr, 


m/r«uI.'r,?'°9'«'Se^, 


,"^,7-SPeer  Library 


^   ^012  00064  7455 


I 


